Star Buds
by kazechyme
Summary: This is a story of five young girls who were placed on Earth for a simple purpose, but soon find that they must save it. This is the first step of their journey, their friendship and their link to Sailor Moon and the Senshi. [Up:WinterAct&EpIII-Part1]
1. Stars Rising

Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. This episode is kind of long. You were forewarned. That's all I can say for now... so, enjoy!

Star Buds

Episode One: Stars Rising

A sea of green suddenly filled the air above the biology building of Jujo High School. It crashed against something and rapidly dissipated. Five figures could be seen moving about, dodging what could be described as 'blue fireballs'.

Meanwhile, the students, who gazed up at the battle taking place at the top of their beloved structure, began to disperse and run frantically about. They couldn't understand what was happening. This phenomenal scene was both exhilarating and terrifying. Some didn't know whether to flee for their lives or witness one of the most awesome events of their time. Still, teachers ushered the students to get away from the campus as fast as they could. The principal had actually issued a 'red alert sub-zero'—it was probably just a string of important sounding words slewed together to sound urgent. (Principal Jujo was like that.) However, the 'red alert sub-zero' did one thing at least—it alerted the police force, which curiously had not yet got to the scene.

Back on the rooftop of the biology building, five young girls circled a seemingly harmless blue star pendant.

"What the hell happened?" yelled a fierce looking girl with bushy black hair tied into two pigtails, each held together with red beaded hair tiers.

Something was different about these five girls. They were not wearing Jujo High uniforms. In fact, they were wearing an altered senshi fuku suit. Each wore a different style.

The busy-haired one, also known as Double Star Bud Virgo, had a purple and gray color scheme and had a spear in her hand. She almost looked like a tribal woman if not for her purple bow that added a splash of softness to her rough appearance.

Holding her bow and arrow at the ready, Star Bud Sagittarius eyed the blue pendant. She sensed some strange vibes emanating from it.

"I do not think we are done with her yet—Everyone! Be on the alert!" she said calmly to the other four.

Lowering her sword, Star Bud Aquarius walked toward the necklace. Star Bud Leo followed behind her. They looked curiously at the pendant for a few seconds.

"Well, it doesn't look so bad. It almost matches my outfit! Whaddya think Leo?"

Leo prodded it with the end of her mirror staff, "Hey you might be right—although I believe it goes much better with my eyes—"

"What?!" Single Star Bud Virgo incredulously cried, "That thing isn't some sort of toy or jewelry or fashion accessory for you to play with! We must destroy it or we're gonna die! Don't you agree Sagittarius?"

Sagittarius nodded in agreement. However, Aquarius and Leo, not heeding Single Virgo's warning, took turns poking the blue star pendant.

"Alright!" Double Virgo yelled, "Get your sissy asterisks outta here so I can crack open some sissy pendant!"

She grabbed the two jewelry-obsessed Star Buds by the collar and threw them aside, nearly off the roof.

"Doom on you!" they screamed as they crossed their arms and grumbled in anger.

"Pftt—The gruesome twosome... always good for a laugh," she said and then raised the point of her spear over the pendant, poised to strike down, "Now, time for some smashy-smashy!"

Before she could thrust her spear down, a dim light emerged from the center of the star.

"Ver! Look out!" Single Virgo yelled as she tackled Double Virgo far enough from the pendant to protect her from what happened next.

The dim light from the star grew stronger and the light became brighter as it shot out like a laser beam.

"Wowzers! I could've had my head blown off! Thanks shorty," Double Virgo said as she scratched her head.

"Well, while it would've been scientifically interesting to actually witness your head being burnt away layer by layer by the laser blast, I decided against it," Single Virgo replied with a smile.

"Thanks so much little runt, remind me NOT to decide against scientifically pounding your brain in!"

Sagittarius, Aquarius, and Leo formed a wall between the two girls on the ground and the "active" blue pendant.

"Ok, light-spazzing pendant is a big no-no in my fashion book," Aquarius said as she gripped her sword tighter.

"Truth in those words my sista," Leo confirmed.

Sagittarius notched an arrow to her bow and pulled it back. She took a deep breath and as she did so, the arrow lit up in fire.

"She is coming back. Do not stare directly in the light of her eyes or any light she exudes as a matter of fact," Sagittarius informed them.

"Are you sure about this?" Aquarius asked.

* * *

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Maddy asked.

"Of course I'm sure! This is what happens when you're a new student!" Ms. Haruna said energetically.

She was one of the teachers at the high school. It was her job to welcome the new students.

"Well, you see, we throw you a welcoming party," she said as she threw confetti in the air.

The five new students and Ms. Haruna were in her office, which overlooked the quad—the central meeting place for assemblies and special announcements. It also had a balcony that was great for everyone to see and be heard.

Annie raised her hand, "A party?! You call public humiliation a party?!"

Vivicka, the 'short one', meekly nodded and said, "I actually have to agree with Annie on this one. Plus, I'm afraid of heights..."

"You girls are new students! Ordinarily, I wouldn't do this, but you just transferred from the prestigious Mukashi No Tenshi High School! That school itself deserves a party... Anyway, since you came from such a prominent background, I had to find a way to thrust you into the societal wheels of high school—Fast! This is the only way I see it _and_ it's good publicity."

The five girls were speechless. They wanted to believe it was just a horrible dream.

"No offense Ms. Haruna," Angela began, "But we do not want to be subject to this kind of public display—"

"In other words: Hell no!" Veronica shouted and slammed her fist on the desk.

Angela gasped at the irreverence of Veronica's statement. Vivicka laughed geekily.

"Got that totally wrong Ver, heh heh," Vivicka muttered.

"What the hell did you say? You want some of this?" Veronica said as she held up her fist and waved it in front of Vivicka's face.

Vivicka shouted back as they started to get into a heated argument. Meanwhile, Maddy and Annie realized they hadn't checked themselves in front of the mirror all morning before they left the house.

"Hey Mad, got a mirror?" Annie whispered.

She shook her head but noticed the floor was quite shiny. She pointed down and smirked.

"Good thinking," Annie said to Maddy as they both shrunk to the floor on their knees.

Angela gave them an alarmed look but they didn't notice her. Ms. Haruna didn't notice either; in fact, she didn't seem to notice much of anything that was happening in her office.

Finally, Angela spoke, "Ms. Haruna, pardon me, but do not you think we should get to class now? I should like to begin my studies as soon as possible."

"Why of course my dear!" Ms. Haruna responded, "Sofia! Get in here! Bring your camera too!!! SOFIA!"

The door slid open and revealed a girl arrogantly standing upright with an old-fashioned notepad. Behind her stood a girl with a camera. She seemed excited for some reason.

The girl with the notepad stepped in and looked around. First, she glanced at the feuding girls who had their fists waving in the air. Then her eyes moved to the couple of the girls who were pointing at their reflections on the tile flooring. Finally, her gaze rested on the only normal girl in the room—Angela.

Sofia extended her hand to her, "Greetings! My name is Sofia Lancaster. I'm the chief editor and owner of the school newspaper."

Angela smiled, thinking she finally met a levelheaded person in this kooky place, "Hullo, my name is Angela Kawairashii. I am very glad to meet you."

"Charming name," Sofia said as she motioned for Josie Camarin, her photographer, to enter the room.

Annie and Maddy jumped up and went straight to Josie.

"Wow! Are you a professional photographer?" Maddy asked excitedly.

Annie added, "Can I see some of your work?"

"What?!" Josie cried out, "Nobody has ever asked me that—Well, here you go!"

She took out a huge portfolio.

"I usually don't have this but I thought I'd just bring it out today," she said as she took out some magazine covers, "Here are some students that I had to photograph for the newspaper."

Apparently, Veronica and Vivicka stopped quarreling because Vivicka popped up between Maddy and Annie.

"Wha??" Viv exclaimed as she pointed at the swimmer in the picture, "Who is she?"

"That's Julia Masmen, master swimmer at Jujo High," Josie answered proudly.

"Whoa... she reminds me of Roswell," Vivicka said.

"Oh, you mean Roswell, New Mexico? Did you know it changed to Neo Mexico?" Josie said and began to chatter on and on.

"Right..." Vivicka replied as she rolled her eyes.

As Sofia jotted down notes, Ms. Haruna was preparing the stage lights and microphone on the balcony. Josie busied herself with cleaning her camera lenses.

"Hey Ange, I usually like all this attention but this is just way out of my league. I mean look," Annie said as she pointed at Ms. Haruna who was setting the firecrackers down, "She's practically holding a New Year's party out there!"

Angela never looked puzzled but this was something she never imagined would happen at a place dubbed "the genius school of super talents". Not a moment too soon, Veronica slipped their schedule disks off the desk.

"Yoink!" Veronica said as she showed them their class schedules.

"Lets get the hell out of here!" Vivicka said in a high-pitched voice due to all of the excitement.

As they crept pass the journalist and photographer and stepped out the door, Veronica punched Vivicka on the head.

"What was that for?" Vivicka said as she rubbed her head, which began to sprout a red, swollen bump.

"Only I git to say hell! You hearin' me, you little hell monkey?" Veronica said angrily but ended up in a hearty laugh, "HAH! Hell monkey—gotta remember that one!"

For some reason, Vivicka laughed too even though her head hurt. She was always laughing at the most oddest times...

Maddy and Annie had to drag the two laughing girls down the hall as they followed Angela's orders.

"Here are your schedules. Vivicka, you are going into the first year class. Veronica, you are in the second year. The rest of us are in the third year," Angela distributed the disks, "Get to class and please do not draw attention to yourselves. Remember that we are here to gather and retrieve information on the Earth."

She looked at Vivicka, "And even if classes are too easy for you, just try to fit in."

The others nodded.

Angela, Annie, and Maddy took the corridor to the right. Veronica took the opposite corridor and Vivicka went straight down the hall.

As the short girl walked, she couldn't help but notice that the walls were huge glass windows where you could see the green foliage and the large trees that decorated the gardens of the school grounds.

"Gulp Did I mention to anyone that I'm afraid of heights?" she thought, "No matter, just keep walking, just keep walking..."

On the other side of the glass windows, a small, blue fuzzy light swirled and moved about, following the girl down the hall.

Suddenly, in the air, more lights flashed and they turned out to be firecrackers. Ms. Haruna's voice could be faintly heard. As the light of the crackers faded out, the small, blue light journeyed on...

* * *

Veronica trudged into class and saw her nemesis—the teacher. He took one look at Veronica through his ancient glasses and sighed. Here was another 'burnt out light bulb', with the bird nest hair to prove it.

"Hiya," Veronica greeted the teacher with a slight bow.

He immediately saw the disrespectfulness of the gesture but quickly dismissed it. Besides, he had the whole year to critique and punish the youngster.

"Class, this is Veronica... Kaze," he said as he motioned for the class to greet the new student.

The class mumbled what could be called a greeting. Veronica shrugged and did a small salute.

"Tell us something about yourself."

"Well, I was the number one fighter in my district last year and I sure as hell'll be the best in this district!" she boasted.

"Amusing..." the teacher said disinterestedly, "Take a seat next to..."

There was a bunch of rough, shady guys in the corner.

"Next to Rand. You'll make friends with them, they also like to um... hit people."

Interestingly enough, she had to sit in the midst of the rowdy boys. Veronica couldn't care less. She could knock them out in under five seconds flat. She laughed at the mental image.

Class went by slowly as the teacher droned on and on about this and that. Veronica had learned to dodge the crumbled pieces of papers that flew by here. It was the only thing keeping her awake.

As the teacher began his literature lecture, Veronica noticed something unusual outside. A blue, fuzzy light was hanging around outside the window of a nearby classroom. It hovered there for a few moments, and then began to rock back and forth, gathering momentum.

Veronica's eyes widened.

The blue light paused for a mere second. It swung one last time and crashed through the window. A figure jumped out the window as shattered glass flew in every direction.

"Oh sh--!" Veronica yelled as she stood up and raced out the door.

The teacher was about to take out his "pain stick", something of a stick that caused pain, but refrained when all his students rushed to the window to see the shattered and broken glass of the classroom across from them.

* * *

"Something's wrong," Maddy said, looking around at the empty desks surrounding her.

Annie, who sat behind her, asked worriedly, "Ma-chan? What's up? Sensing something weird?"

She looked directly at the front row of desks and pointed, "The balance is off. Angela's not sitting in the front like she usually does!"

Annie dramatically gasped at her comment and jokingly replied, "Well, with all the freak geniuses at this school, all the front desks were taken up already. That's why nobody's sitting back here with us 'normal' kids."

Maddy nodded in agreement, "Gotcha. So, I'll be going to sleep now if you don't mind. Keep a lookout."

Annie smiled and started to write a note for Maddy when she woke up since she was so bored.

As she tapped the pen against her desk, she stared to daydream about their years on Earth. They were on the planet to research, but what had they found out? Nothing of much importance except the fashion industry. Angela was always talking about the scientific discoveries and evolutionary patterns of this and that. Veronica discovered her kickboxing idol Kenzoku and Vivicka, well, she discovered she was a little nerd.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Maddy's head fell back and startled Annie.

"Yo Mad! Best wake up!" Annie whispered as the teacher began eyeing the two. Maddy woke up with a start. Her eyes widened as she turned to Annie, "Ok, serious vibes this time. Don't you feel it?"

Annie started to feel the tingling vibe sensation, "What do we do? What do we do? Lets get Ange and get outta here!"

Maddy looked over at Angela, who was intently listening to the lecture.

Angela felt Maddy's stare and turned to look at her two friends. She now began to sense the vibes. No longer engrossed in the interesting theories of the Earthlings, her mind raced as she tried to choose the best options for them to take.

* * *

Vivicka got to her class, finally. However, all feelings of relief fizzled away when she saw who her teacher was.

"Vivicka Kaminari! Come on down!" Ms. Haruna shouted.

She slowly stepped toward her teacher.

"Ms. Haruna, nice to meet you—again," Vivicka said as she bowed deeply.

Ms. Haruna turned off the lights and suddenly an intense spotlight hit Vivicka. All eyes were on her.

"Gulp H-hiya... I transferred here from Mukashi No Tenshi..." Vivicka began, "Did I mention I hate the spotlight? Do I really have to do—"

In the corner of her eye, she noticed something. It was a small blue light outside the window. It hovered there quietly.

Ms. Haruna waited for Vivicka to say more but all was silent. Finally, she turned the lights back on and put her hands on Vivicka's shoulders.

"Ok, ok, you can sit down now," Ms. Haruna said as she took out her fan and began to 'wave' Vivicka into her seat.

Vivicka smiled weakly and took a seat next to the window.

"What a weird teacher," Vivicka though, "but cool! This is going to be an interesting year."

Ms. Haruna began her lesson, which included laser lights, acrobats, and elephants for some reason. As much as Vivicka wanted to enjoy this showcase, her eyes wondered to the little blue light that still hovered outside.

"Usually Veronica sees these things. Why am I seeing it?!" Vivicka thought.

The blue light began to move forward and backward in a rocking motion. It was readying itself for something.

"It's gonna come in! I wonder if it can go through glass..."

As she pondered this, the blue light made a small pause. All thoughts were broken, however, when the little blue light crashed through the window.

"No time to think!" Vivicka cried out as she jumped up to grab the light.

As she soared through the air with her hand outstretched, she reached like she never reached before. She was so close to it and as her fingers closed in around it—she gasped in horror.

"Ahhh!"

Her hand went completely through the light and before she could catch her balance, she jumped right at the window, shattering it to pieces.

"Ver!!!" Vivicka yelled out, the only thing she could think of at the moment.

Angela, Maddy, and Annie got to the classroom door once Vivicka flew out the window.

"Vivicka! She's outside!" Ms. Haruna said hysterically.

The three girls were about to move across the room when the blue light began to shine brighter and grow bigger. Slowly, it began to take shape. It transformed into a woman with burgundy hair and a blue star pendant.

Angela quickly looked away to shield her eyes from the light.

"What's going on here? Someone jumped to their death before I could get to them?" she said, "I call that smart."

Annie and Maddy couldn't move for some reason. They kept staring at the woman's hypnotic blue eyes.

Angela kept her head down and nudged the two while whispering, "We need to save Vivicka."

They didn't respond. In fact, the whole classroom wasn't responding to anything. There was no scream of panic or terror, which was extremely odd.

Picking up on the fact that nobody was moving except for the strange lady who was examining each student, Angela began to edge out of the classroom.

"These kids get worse and worse," the stranger said as she touched a student's head, "Why does the master force us to do such trivial tasks?"

She flicked the forehead of a student whose mouth was wide open. Suddenly, she heard a noise, a rustling and turned to see nothing out of the ordinary.

"Probably the wind... Anyway, these humanoids are only good for one thing—sucking the life out of 'em!" she laughed as she raised her hands and light began to stream from it.

The light hit each person and engulfed them.

* * *

Angela escaped the room as it began to light up. As she left, she heard a faint laughter.

"In all my years of Earth research, I _know_ that is not normal," she thought to herself.

She had only one choice now. She had to save everyone or die trying, but first, she hit the 'Fire Alarm' to alert everyone to evacuate the premises.

The hallways began to light up in red. Little lights began to pop up, pointing students and teachers to the fire escapes.

* * *

Principal Jujo stood up from his seat. He looked at the digital blueprint of the school. Nowhere did it indicate a fire or any type of hazardous situation. However, he squinted at a small opening at a spot where there wasn't supposed to be an opening.

"What in the—Why is there a fire alarm for a false fire and no alarm for a school break-in?" he exclaimed, "I've got to fix these things..."

He pressed the intercom button, "Attention students and faculty! There has been a break-in and some killer-psychopath is probably on the loose in our school, but don't worry, there's no fire! The fire alarm was false! Hehehe... good news... anyways, I'll be contacting the police."

After his comment, a stampede of people could be heard trying to get out of the building.

* * *

Veronica ran down the hall, passed the countless classrooms, and headed toward Vivicka's class.

"Why'd she jump out the window? And why aren't there any alarms going off? And why did Vivcka _do_ that?!"

She was about to take the left at the corridor that would lead her straight to Vivicka's classroom but stopped suddenly.

"Wait, I have this... idea? Wait, they said not to transform in public, but I've gotta save Viv... she's probably splattered on the ground by now!"

Without another thought, she raised her hand in the air. A light surrounded her as she transformed into Double Star Bud Virgo.

"Who cares if people see me, I'm gonna rescue my little cousin."

As she ran down the hall, lights began to go off. DSBVirgo stopped as soon as the alarm sounded.

"Finally! Somebody's got some sense," she angrily said.

Getting to Vivicka's classroom, Principal Jujo's message about contacting the police was hard. DSBVirgo ignored the odd message and burst into the room where she fond the stunned students, the lady surrounded by blue light, and Star Bud Sagittarius with her flame arrow notched to her bow.

"Do not move," Sagittarius said to the stranger, "First, tell us who and what you are. Then free these students."

The alarm kept sounding. The strange woman narrowed her eyes at the newcomer Double Virgo. She raised her fist to the ceiling and blue lights shot out everywhere. The whole school building was engulfed in blue light. Sagittarius jumped in front of Double Virgo and a wall of flame blazed out in front of them as the blue light tried to touch them. The school and all who were in it where frozen.

Double Virgo stepped away from Sagittarius and looked around. She saw Maddy and Annie paralyzed and then saw the shattered glass.

"Vivicka!" she yelled. Her eyes blazed in rage as she eyed the woman, "You! I'm gonna gut you good!"

A spear materialized in her hands as she made ready to charge the stranger.

"Cackling Mwahahaha... Put your stick down," she said to Double Virgo and turned to Sagittarius, "As for you, my name is Levita of the Sinistars and no, I do not wish to free these pitiful sacks of energy."

She smirked at this.

Sagittarius brought the strong back, ready to shoot her arrow, "Levita of the Sinistars, do not make me shoot you. Unfreeze these students and leave peacefully."

Outside the door, crowds of people were stopped in their places. They were statues with frantic expressions etched on their faces.

"Ah! I can't stand it!" DSBVirgo yelled, "Levita, say goodbye!"

Levita lowered her hands and pulled the light streams from the students closer to her.

"Lets see what you've got little birdie," she said.

Double Virgo's spear glowed as a swirl of wind encircled her. She twirled the spear masterfully, never looking away from Levita. In a blur of motion, she charged at Levita with her spear thrusting in five different directions at once.

Levita felt a surge of sharp wind blast at her as multiple spears began to bombard her. She was taken completely by surprise. She staggered back as her light streams dimmed for a moment.

Sagittarius took this opportunity to snap Maddy and Annie from their trance.

"Maddy! Annie!" she said as she shook them one by one, "We need you!"

Meanwhile, Double Virgo yelled out alarmingly loud, "Round-house kick, Kenzoku-style!"

She landed a piercing kick to Levita's chest, which caused Levita to fly backwards, hit the wall, and fall to the ground. The light streams disappeared but all the students were still frozen.

Levita grasped her blue star pendant as she seethingly looked at Double Virgo. She struggled to get up after having the wind knocked out of her.

Double Virgo was about to deliver the crushing blow to Levita's head with the bunt of her spear when she heard a scream from the window.

Sagittarius abandoned trying to unfreeze Annie and Maddy and ran to the window. Vivicka was suspended in midair.

"Double Star, watch over Levita as I try to get Viv—" before she could finish her order, Double Virgo followed her to the window.

"I've gotta save her Ange! Vivicka! Grab my spear," she said as she put her spear out the window.

Levita, jumping at the opportunity to escape, struggled to stand up and held tightly to her pendant.

"Damn you," she hissed as a blue light surrounded her and she disappeared.

"Ver! Why is this happening? Isn't this aerodynamically impossible? Angela! Help!" Vivicka cried out as she stiffly tried to grab Double Virgo's spear.

Sagittarius, angered at Levita's escape, decided to focus on Vivicka now.

"Do not worry Viv, we will get you back up," Sagittarius replied, "Double Star, it is too far for her to reach. We need help quickly. I think Levita's spell or whatever it was, is going to wear off soon."

"Angela, what do we do?" she said in frustration.

Vivicka had a terrible fear of heights and she could feel her limbs starting to get defrosted. That was definitely a bad sign. She looked down as a fire squad tried to get through the crowd of students.

"Help!" she screamed again and again.

"Hold tight Viv! We're thinking—Well, Angela's thinking of something!" Double Virgo screamed back at the girl in midair.

Sagittarius took her bow and unstrung it.

"This isn't a time to restring your bow!" Double Virgo said incredulously as she kept the spear outside the window.

Without saying a word, Sagittarius took the spear from Double Virgo's hands and tied the string to the end of it.

Double Virgo's eyes brightened as she realized what Sagittarius was doing, but her eyes darkened when she realized something else, "Wait a sec, that string adds an extra few feet to the spear, but it ain't gonna hold her Ange. Vivicka doesn't weigh a balloon, y'know!"

Sagittarius smiled as she lowered the spear and the attached string down to Vivicka.

"Relax; if this string can hold an arrow of fire, I think it can hold Viv," Sagittarius said as the string touched Vivicka's hand, "Besides, I ran countless tests on my bow and arrow. This string is practically unbreakable."

"I trust you Angela!" Vivica yelled in response to her explanation, "Just get me back up so I can beat up that blue light thingy!"

"Grab the damn string!" Double Virgo kept reiterating.

Vivicka began to feel the panic rising in her throat. She got the feeling back in her neck and she happened to look down. The fall would be unrecoverable. Slowly, she was getting the feeling back into her whole body.

The string was right next to her hand. All she needed to do was grab it and hold onto it for dear life.

Suddenly, her hands closed in around it and she was happy—but for a moment. Gravity started to work up again.

"Ahhh!" she shrieked as she raised her other hand to grab the string as well.

"Pull!" Sagittarius ordered Double Virgo.

The two Star Buds struggled to get the spear, string, and the girl up through the window.

"Careful, the window might scrape her," Sagittarius said.

"Let go Ange," Double Virgo said, "I've got an idea."

Reluctantly, she released her grip on the spear and stepped back. The spear lowered for a moment but Double Virgo, with muscles tensing up, managed to get the spear back up.

"Hold on tight Viv; I call this the 'fisherman swing'," she said as she took a few steps back.

"What is it called the fisherman—" Vivicka was about to ask when suddenly, she was flying through the window and fell right on a pair of girls next to Sagittarius.

Sagittarius nodded, "Impressive. I did not think you could do it, but obviously, I was mistaken."

Double Virgo smiled and did a 'muscle man' pose, "Years of training can't be wrong!"

Vivicka slowly got up and stretched, "Oof... I see why it's called 'fisherman swing'. Good thing there were these cushions to break my fall."

"Hey you little squirt! We may have broken your fall," Annie said as she stood up.

"But you broke every bone in our body!" Maddy said as she used Annie to help her up.

"It's not my fault Veronica threw me on you guys. Go blame her!"

Double Virgo tossed the bowstring back to Sagittarius and then pointed her spear at Vivicka, "Hey short, I just saved your life! The least you could do is thank me."

Ms. Haruna jumped up, "Get away from Vivicka!"

She threw herself between Double Virgo's spear and Vivicka. It was apparent that she just got out of her trance and the first thing she saw was the Star Bud threatening her student.

Double Virgo was caught by surprise and lowered her spear, "Calm down lady. I rescued he from the freak chick."

Vivicka stepped from behind Ms. Haruna and said, "Correction, you helped rescue me. Angela was the brain behind it right?"

Ms. Haruna looked around. Her students were coming to again but the people outside were still frozen.

"Okay... What's going on? Who are you people and why do I feel like I'm in some science fiction movie?" Ms. Haruan said exasperatedly.

"Actually," Vivicka piped up, "That girl with the spear is Ver—"

Maddy, Annie and Sagittarius covered her mouth before she could say Veronica's name.

"She is Virgo, Double Star Bud Virgo," Sagittarius said with her hand extended out to Ms. Haruna, "And you may call me Star Bud Sagittarius. Now, we should be going. We should not hinder your lesson plans. Please, do go on."

Before Ms. Haruna could respond, the two Star Buds dashed out of the room as the crowd of people slowly became mobile again.

"Star Buds?" Ms. Haruna shouted, "What the... We're still in class?!"

Vivicka tiptoed to her seat and Maddy and Annie waved goodbye to the little girl who had a near-death experience.

"Great first day," Vivicka said aloud as the bewildered students around her finally snapped out of the freezing spell.

* * *

Sofia Lancaster was making her way to the lower classes to interview one of the new students when the school alarm rang.

Moments later, people poured out of the classrooms and Sofia was now in the midst of a river of human bodies.

Suddenly, she felt cold and immobile. Seconds passed away and she began blinking again. She felt stiff and by the looks of it, everyone else felt that way too.

People began to run again, like nothing happened. Sofia, being the reporter she was, decided otherwise. Something was amiss whether she understood it or not.

As she was about to walk into the classroom she was originally assigned to, a girl wearing an interesting costume bumped right into her. Out of the door came a second one; this one held a spear though.

"Sorry," the girl muttered as she hurriedly ran down the hall with the rush of people.

The girl with a spear followed after her but managed to give Sofia a menacing glare before she left.

Sofia dug into her purse, fidgeting around in a panic. She finally got out her camera and tried to take a snapshot of them. It was too late though. Too many heads and too many bodies blocked her way.

"Fiddlesticks!" she growled.

Ms. Haruna's voice penetrated her train of thought.

"Star Buds?" she said in bewilderment, "What the... We're still in class?!"

Sofia whispered to herself, "Star Buds... those were Star Buds, huh? Time to investigate this!"

She walked into the classroom. The students looked a bit dazed.

"Ms. Haruna, could you please tell me who just ran out that door?"

Ms. Haruna turned to her, "S-Star Buds? That's what they said."

"Could you at least tell me what happened around here before the alarm rang?"

She thought for a minute, "Well, it's a bit fuzzy... Oh, this blue fuzzy light came in and Vivicka jumped out."

Ms. Haruna pointed out the shattered window. Sofia gazed at the glass and broken pieces of material on the ground.

"And how did she get back up?" she interrogated.

At this, Vivicka said, "I climbed up!"

She couldn't risk Sofia asking any more questions about Star Buds. Thus, she thought to divert the attention from to her heroic act. Everyone looked incredulously at her. Some of them clapped in admiration.

Sofia, looking unconvinced, walked up to Vivicka, "So the, you must have seen these 'Star Buds' and what they did to the class."

Vivicka racked her brains, "Well, you see, I was outside the whole time, hanging on for dear life! There was a blue flash and then I don't know what happened. I was too scared to think of anything."

"So," Sofia said, turning sharply to Ms. Haruna, "you communicated with them?"

"When I woke up, I saw this girl pointing a spear at Vivicka," she responded, "saying she rescued her."

Sofia's eyebrows raised, "Pointing a spear at her _and _claiming she rescued her? A lie probably."

Vivicka stood up suddenly, "It's not a lie!"

"But you said you climbed up from the window yourself."

"But I-I... did say that," with a sigh, Vivicka sat down.

Sofia walked towards Ms. Haruna's desk, "Basically, you're saying that a blue light came in and the next moment you see a girl holding up a spear to one of your students."

Ms. Haruna reluctantly nodded, "I suppose you can say that..."

Sofia smiled and said, "Well, I'll have to keep my eye on these Star Buds for now on. They might be dangerous."

Vivicka gasped. She was about to say something, but thought otherwise because she might get herself in more trouble. This Sofia had a reporter's nose, and therefore, she could smell out a lie or a discrepancy in a flash.

Sofia Lancaster said goodbye to them and walked out of the classroom.

"I got myself a story!" Sofia said as she stepped into the hall, "I can see it now: 'Star Buds- A New Threat' by Sofia Lancaster, award-winning journalist!"

She walked down the all, writing notes on her notepad. Little did she know, however, that two girls heard her boastful proclamation. Around the corner of the hall, Maddy and Annie squatted on the ground.

"Maddy! Did you hear that?"

"Shh!!" Maddy said, "I heard her already. Lets just get home so we can tell Angela."

Annie nodded energetically, "Yeah, she'll know what to do... I just can't believe we have a reporter on our case."

"Well, if we play our cards right, we might not have to deal with her," Maddy replied.

The two ran down the hall, heading home even though school was still in session.

* * *

Veronica looked up at the huge mansion in front of her. It was in a pretty good neighborhood, although it was filled with elderly, cranky people. For most of the years she was on Earth, before she and Vivicka met the other three Star Buds, they lived and slept on the streets or a stranger's backyard. They got all their possessions from the alleyways and trash bins. Their source of income came from Veronica's pick pocketing skills and Vivicka's acting abilities, mainly crying.

Veronica scratched her head, "I wish we lived here."

Vivicka slapped Veronica's back, "Bird nest head! Wake up! We do live here! Get yer brains together."

"I'll pummel you good if you hit me again," she growled back, "Besides, aren't you surprised that we actually sleep in that monster of a house?"

Vivicka shrugged, "I always thought we'd sleep in a big house again, just like we did at home on Virgo."

Smiling, Veronica patted Vivicka's head, "Y'know, you're right—for once. It sucks we can't go back home now that you mention it. I wonder what happened at home. They haven't contacted us for a whole year."

There was a contemplative silence following her statement. They stood there, staring at the mansion rooftop that touched the sky, the sky they so yearned to go back to.

"Umm... Ver..." Vivicka said anxiously, "Do you think something bad happened an Virgo and the rest of the planets?"

Veronica didn't reply for a while. She knew that could be a definite possibility but she didn't want to scare Vivicka. She was a smart little girl, but a little girl, nonetheless, who could get frightened fairly easily.

"N-no, of course not!" Veronica said she walked towards the door, "We probably can't get the right satellite frequency to contact them after our communicators got damaged in that fire."

Vivicka nodded slowly, "Yeah, you might be right—for once. C'mon, lets go get some grub!"

* * *

Maddy was laying on the ground watching the holo-tv projected onto the ceiling. Annie sat on one of the bar stools in the kitchen.

"I can't believe that sneak!" Annie growled as she swiveled around to rest her elbow on the kitchen counter.

"Cool it An-chan," Maddy said as she switched the channels on the TV, "All we have to do is avoid her and not transform anymore."

Annie thought for a moment, "Well, whatever, I just want a normal life and not worry about all these secrets."

At that moment, Veronica and Vivicka came in the house with Angela following them.

"So, food anyone?" Vivicka asked as she plopped down on the ground next to Maddy, "I've had a stunning day and I'm starving."

Veronica jumped catlike onto the couch and looked down at the two on the ground, "You guys are so lazy. Go tell Angela yerself!"

Looking back over at Annie and then at Maddy again, she added, "And why were you guys home so early? If they get to ditch school, I getta ditch too!"

Angela put her books down on the kitchen counter and sighed. She had a long day and she just wanted to make food for her 'family'.

"Alright. Explain why you guys did not go to school and Veronica, do not treat the couch like a gymnasium set," Angela responded as she punched some number into the food replicator (à la Star Trek) in the kitchen.

Vivicka got up from the ground and ran to Angela to help her out, "Don't forget that nobody's gonna get to ditch school!"

Angela nodded in agreement and smiled at her little protégé.

Slowly sitting up, Maddy started to explain, "Well, y'see Ange, me and Annie left Viv's class when we overheard this psychopath proclaiming _us_, yes sweet old us, as the next threat to humanity!"

Annie swung around in her chair, "That's right! So, we were so mad that we ran home to figure out what to do and of course, dropped by the mega mall..."

Veronica howled in laughter at the last part of the Annie's comment.

Leaving on the counter, chomping on some carrots, Vivicka said, "By psychopath, do you mean Sofia Lancaster? And by us, do you mean Star Buds? 'Cause I think I know what you're talking about..."

"It seems you know more about this than you are willing to tell," Angela said as she began cutting the vegetables.

Vivicka swallowed her carrot and recounted her mental struggle with the perceptive Sofia the reporter.

"So, basically, you lied to the gal and now she thinks we're the bad guys," Veronica said as she jumped over the couch and sat down next to Annie on one of the swivel chairs, "Good one, Viv! I certainly don't think we'll have trouble at school anymore."

Angela stopped chopping, "Viv, all you have to do now is avoid Sofia while we try to make up a different story. However, we need to address the other problem."

Maddy turned off the holo-tv and joined them in the kitchen, "Yeah, talk about problem! This white color scheme for the house just doesn't work! We're living in a laboratory!"

The four girls looked at her in both astonishment and bewilderment.

"What? What'd I say?"

Veronica put a hand on Maddy's shoulder and said, "Well now, I'm usually the slow one around here abut we've actually got a bigger problem than a buncha colors. Do ya remember Viv's death experience?"

Maddy uttered, "Oh yeah..."

As Angela put a pot on the stove, she said contemplatively, "We need to figure out who and what these Sinistars are. There might be more than one of those people roaming around and I think they might come back to Jujo High."

"Yeah, so we need to stop them when they do come back!" Annie replied, "And prove ourselves as heroes on the process."

Maddy, Vivicka, and Veronica happily agreed with her. They thought the idea was great but to their surprise, Angela didn't.

"That is not part of our mission. All we are doing here on Earth is gathering information. The furthest we are going with these Sinistars is compiling information on them," she said as she poured the vegetables in the pot, "Then, we will send our monthly report back to SBC to be processed."

Maddy gasped, "Angela! I can't believe what you're saying! If Levita comes back, I'm not just gonna sit around and take notes while Ms. Blue-blast-a-lot goes around blasting-a-lot"  
"Me neither," Annie said, "And we all know those reports aren't going anywhere! Face it, for a whole year we haven't had contact with Star Bud Central. How do we know our research is getting back home? While we're here, let's just do something productive."

Vivicka slowly agreed, "Annie said something smart for once. I want to stop this Sinistar group. I don't want people to get hurt. We have this power, so why not just use it for good? We can research _and _fight, even if our research isn't going anywhere which I still believe it does."

Springing up from her seat, Veronica added, "I wanna fight these things! Our mission is to study Earth, so we might as well save them so we have something to study! Whoa... that made damn well good sense!"

Angela was quiet for a while as the four pairs of eyes stared at her and waited for her answer. She wiped her hands on her apron and took out some seasoning.

"Well," she said, "if we are going to face these Sinistars, we need to find out what we're up against. Go wash up for dinner and then we will research these abnormal beings, _but _this does not mean we give up on our original mission."

The four girls grinned as they followed orders.

* * *

That day, Vivicka snuck into the school and stealthily crept into the classroom. She did it so flawlessly that Ms. Haruna didn't even notice her.

"So, Kaminari Vivicka is absent today? Wouldn't blame the poor child, she almost died falling out that window," as she said this, she pointed at the broken window, "and miraculously pulled herself back up!"

She pressed a button on her desk and an 'applause' sign dropped down from the ceiling. The students nervously clapped as Ms. Haruna, literally, gave a round of applause.

Vivicka blushed and sank down in her seat.

"Wait!" she thought, "I can't miss a day of school! It'll go on my permanent record!"

She stood straight up and waved her hands to get her eccentric teacher's attention, "Ms. Haruna!!! I'm here! I'm not absent!"

The 'applause' sign floated back up and Ms. Haruna grew silent. She walked up to Vivicka and examined her from head to foot.

"You don't look traumatized," she said as she knocked on Vivicka's head, "but you _do_ look frazzled. How about you go to Sofia's office?

"She's a doctor too?" Vivicka blurted out.

Ms. Haruna gave a hearty laugh, "No, no my chirpy little student! You look well enough for an interview! Sofia wants an interview with you! Oh how exciting!"

Vivicka looked around at her classmates. They were vigorously studying their books and didn't look like they cared about the conversation.

Vivicka shrugged as she replied, "Eh, it's a 'new student interview'. Nothing much, I'll just sit down now and she could look at my file for information."

She'd never disobeyed a teacher before. This feeling of power and rebelliousness was overwhelming. She couldn't breathe.

Ms. Haruna smiled, "No, no my chippity little student! She's not doing those interviews anymore. She's working on a story all about you and your encounter with death! Oh, I'm so proud of you! For some reason, she really wants you to tell about your meeting with a Star Bud at spear point..."

She babbled on and on but Vivicka stopped listening a long time ago. She felt the blood rushing to her ears. The rebel spirit was awakening in her and she couldn't breathe right.

"... So cows drink milk!" Ms. Haruna finished with loud laughter.

Before Vivicka could utter a word, she fainted and hit the ground.

"Oh dear," Ms. Haruna whispered.

The classmates paused in their studies, noting the welcome silence, and then resumed their reading.

* * *

Looking through file after file, Sofia had finally located the new students' records. All she had to do now was extract information from these pages and create small articles on each person. It was an extremely efficient method, albeit very impersonal, but she needed all the time she could get.

Sofia was about to interview a girl who claimed to have escaped death by crawling back through a window she had jumped out of. From Sofia's pictures, it was an impossible story. The glass was so jagged that it would have punctured anything that touched it. She only had one conclusion: the Star Buds were involved in it.

How did she know? She encountered them before and knew they were involved with that fire.

That fire.

Suddenly, Josie kicked the door open and shouted, "S-Sofia! Your interviewee collapsed! Something about hyperventilating and lack of breath!"

"Guess I'll just have to get straight down to the source. Get me the Kaminari address."

* * *

As Annie and Maddy packed their books away, Angela walked up to them.

"Remember, we are going to research after school."

Maddy looked at Annie and nudged her with her elbow. They eyed each other for a moment and seemingly, Annie surrendered to Maddy's demand.

"Listen Ange," Annie began slowly, "We need to go to the Mega Mall for a moment—just a nanosecond, that's all."

Maddy nodded, "We'll come straight home after we get a few things, uh, plus we caught some strange vibes coming from that place."

Annie was about to protest but realized what Maddy was saying, "Oh yeah, big vibes! Vibes so big that it's-it's mega! Hence..."

"The Mega mall!" Maddy concluded as she patted Annie's shoulder.

"Lets get outta here; I think she's on to us," Annie whispered as Angela gave them disproving looks.

"Fine, but remember that we have work to do and that there are more important things than shopping," Angela finally said.

The two gave her quick hugs and left for the mall. Angela smiled, "I never could figure out how those two made it through Star Bud training. Maybe it was their persistence."

* * *

Annie and Maddy grabbed a hover-taxi to get to their destination, the mall of all malls, the Mega Mall. As they got out of the taxi, they gazed up at the gigantic building. It stood like a gold tower with four spires at each corner of the top. It was built around an ice rink and sported the world's first 'sky park' resting at the top of the mall.

"It's like a dream," Maddy said.

"A beautiful, _real_ dream," Annie added.

"C'mon, we've got lots of research to do."

"Let's get it on! I've got Ange's credit cards!"

"And we've got lots of time to spare!"

They embarked on their wondrous journey to find the perfect outfit.

Meanwhile... 2 hours later...

"Angela!" Vivicka cried, "My eyes hurt! We're looking at the screen flashing too much!"

Veronica was sprawled on the living room floor looking at a map indicating different energy wavelengths, "Mine eyes! Too many swirlies!"

"Where's Mad and An-chan?" Vivicka cried out again, "They're supposed to help us! Now I have to look at three flashing screens at once! Ahhh!"

Angela took a sip of her coffee and took off her VR goggles (à la Sailor Mercury), "Sorry Viv, but they said they were going to the mall and back. I should have known better..."

Veronica rolled around to get stretched out, "Hah! The twosome gruesome wouldn't git outta there even if you lured them all the money in the world! Pfftt... shopaholics..."

"Well, lets just keep working. They can have the night shift," Angela reassured them as she put her goggles back on.

"Excellent," the two girls said in unison.

And so, the three girls continued to research until five minutes later, Veronica turned on the holo-tv to watch some toons.

* * *

Sofia was heading towards the mansion when she saw a blue light zooming towards a gold skyscraper.

"T-taxi!" she yelled, "Take me to the Mega Mall instead!"

With that command, the hover-taxi switched lanes and headed for the mall.

"That light... It must be the Star Buds."

* * *

A black robed figure stood in the darkness. His skeleton-like fingers rested on a black marble table. He was looking at something in the air, as if watching an invisible object.

"My Sinistar Levita will bring them to me. This is our time for retribution."

A smaller, black robed figure emerged from the shadows.

"Brother, revenge is sweet," she whispered, "But don't bite your tongue by chewing too fast."

She moved toward a gray lined square standing in the air. She waved her black sleeve over the shape and it became a window overlooking a grayish green forest with a swerving yellow hiking trail embedded in it. She turned her attention to the lake deep within the trees. It was an odd lake. It was rimmed with red.

"Red," she quietly said.

"Yes, red like the fires that changed our lives forever, sister," he said as he came up behind her and looked out the glass square, "Forever... Our revenge will finally commence."

* * *

Maddy waited outside the changing room door. In the two hours they were there, they had already charged up two credit cards each and had about twenty-five bags stored in their storage lockers.

Annie finally came out. She was wearing a blue headband and a matching blue dress with white boots.

"Whaddya think?" she said as she posed in front of the mirror.

Maddy leaned back in the chair, "Angela is gonna be so mad. We should go home right now."

"No, I meant what do you think about my outfit?"

"OH, that. It's absolutely fabulous on you but—"

CRASH!

Maddy ran out the store and there, falling from above, was a woman wearing a blue star pendant. Annie followed after Maddy, still wearing the store's clothes, which set off the store's alarm.

"Look An-chan! That must be Levita!"

Annie frowned and dragged Maddy to the nearby bathroom as people began to rush out the mall. Once they got into the bathroom, Annie dropped Maddy. She raised her hand in the air and Maddy did the same, after getting off the ground.

"Leo Power!" Annie cried.

"Aquarius Power!" Maddy shouted.

They were bathed in a white light and were transformed into Star Buds. They readied their weapons. Aquarius held her two short swords and Leo held her mirror staff.

"Alright," Aquarius said, "I'll kick the door open and you charge her."

Leo was about to get ready when she noticed a woman behind her who wasn't moving, "Uh, Mad, look at these people. They are total statues."

Aquarius poked the lady's head, "You're right. How come we weren't affected?"

Leo thought for a moment. However, before she could form and idea, Levita's voice could be heard outside.

"Where are you?" she yelled, "Come out or else I'll kill one of your humans!"

Aquarius turned to Leo, "We have to get out there!"

Leo nodded and readied her mirror spear.

"One, two," Aquarius took a deep breath, "three!"

She kicked the door open and Leo charged out with her mirror. Levita, who was standing a few paces away, turned her eyes toward Leo. They flashed once as Leo prepared her attack.

"Somehow my Master knew you were going to be here," she said icily.

"H-Hey! What's happening?" Leo said while she tried to move her legs.

Unfortunately, they weren't moving. In fact, they were frozen.

"Aquarius! Help me!"

"Sorry, Leo. I'm stuck too!"

Leo turned around and saw that Aquarius was in the same predicament. Struggling, she glared at Levita.

"Let us go! We're warning you!" Leo yelled.

Levita threw her head back and laughed, "Warning me? Aren't you jumping ahead of yourself? Oh wait, you can't even move. Mwahahaha... Alright, enough of this silly talk, call on the rest of your pipsqueak squad so I can take you to the Master."

"Never, you hag! Let us free so we can teach you a lesson!" Aquarius replied, "And as for your master, tell him that we don't do live appearances on request!"

Levita walked to a frozen civilian man who looked like he was about to run.

"Foolish girl," she said as she touched the man's face, "You should do what I say or I'll take these lives one by one until you break—besides, it wasn't a request."

Leo gasped, "You wouldn't dare!"

Slashing the ice at her feet with her swords, Aquarius furiously cursed at the uselessness of her actions.

"Just let them all go! It's us you want, right?" Aquarius pleaded, "Just take us to your leader!"

Levita smiled as she leaned on the man's shoulders, "Now we're getting somewhere. Tell your buddies to come out and we'll have a deal."

Leo was filled with rage. She lifted up her mirror, "Reflection Beam!"

Light filled the mirror and shot a beam right at Levita.

"Leo, no!" Aquarius yelled.

Levita took a step behind the frozen man. Suddenly, the beam swerved and blasted down a trash can instead.

"That was close," Leo said, "I'm all out of ideas."

From the looks of it, Levita was more shocked than relieved that she didn't get hit by Leo's beam.

"That's right," she thought, "They must have elemental powers. I better get going before the other one attacks, or worse, more arrive."

Levita stepped away from the man and playfully grinned, "I see you now realize the consequences of your actions. Now, you will come with me. If you try anything, I will kill this lovely statue of a human being."

Aquarius and Leo were skeptical. They wondered why she wanted to leave without the others.

"Psst... Leo," Aquarius whispered, "This could work for us."

"Right," Leo replied.

"We'll come with you," Aquarius said aloud.

"I knew you would see it my way," Levita said as the ice disappeared from the Star Buds.

* * *

The taxi stopped at the Mega Mall. Sofia paid the fee and dashed into the plaza outside the mall. Once again, she felt the odd sensation that something wasn't right. The police and media were surrounding the building. Even more interesting, ice was surrounding it too.

"Excuse me!" she called to a policeman who was scanning the ice, "What's going on?"

"Sorry miss, but the mall is closed. Please go home; it's dangerous here," he said as he tried to usher her away.

Sofia finally agreed to leave but stopped by a news station van across the street. She slipped into the open back and looked around.

"Ah, found it!"

She grabbed a news crew jacket and zipped it on. To disguise herself even more, she put on a hat, "This should do it."

Sofia crept out the van in her new clothes and tipped the cap over her eyes. Slowly making her way to the Mega Mall again, she noted the underground cave they were working on.

"I'm part of the Anonymous News Crew," she said gruffly to the worker who was standing in front of the cave, "I need to check out what's going on down there."

He eyed her suspiciously for a while but finally agreed when his supervisor called him over to the conference table.

"Fine, ten minutes," he said, "We're getting back to work after we finalize the machine plans."

Sofia sighed in relief and descended into the dark tunnel. No one seemed to be around which wasn't odd because the digging was usually done by a contraption of some sort.

"Hello?" she said.

Nobody answered.

She continued on as it became colder and colder. The path sloped upwards as she walked. She knew she was penetrating into the mall because icicles were forming on the top of the tunnel and it was getting harder to walk without slipping.

"What?" she exclaimed as she got to a wall of ice with a square chiseled in the middle. The square wasn't big enough for a full sized man to fit in it, but it was big enough for a teenage girl.

"Perfect!"

She carefully made her way into the hole. It was a good thing she was wearing the news crew jacket because it was progressively feeling like she was heading towards the North Pole.

"Keep it going Sofia," she told herself as she saw a faint light at the end. As she slowly crawled to the small opening, a shout rang out and she felt a soft vibration.

"Something's going on over there!"

Crawling faster, she pushed herself out of the hole that seemed like it was getting smaller. Huddling on the ground to get her warmth back, she glanced around. There were people everywhere, frozen people.

"This is not normal," she said as she unzipped the jacket to get her camera from her shirt pocket. Zipping back up, she took pictures of the unmoving shoppers, the ice on the ground, and the unnaturalness of the place.

"What is going on..."

She paused in her picture taking when she heard some voices. Creeping quickly under a bench next to a bathroom, she readied her camera. To her surprise, she saw two girls in weird fuku suits and one woman with a blue star pendant.

"Star Buds!"

"I knew you would see it my way," the burgundy haired woman said.

"Take us to this 'Master'," the green haired one commanded, who held two swords.

Loyally, the woman, who seemed to be the servant, waved her hand in the air and amazingly, a black hole appeared. Furiously snapping away, Sofia couldn't fathom what this could mean.

The Star Bud stepped into the newly formed 'black-hole' while the burgundy haired lady paused before stepping in. She touched her star pendant and then leapt into the rift in the air. Sofia took all the pictures she could get before all the ice disappeared and people began to run around again. She got up from her hiding place and dashed out the mall holding the camera tightly in her hands.

"I've gotta find that Vivicka. She has the answers... all five of them do."

* * *

Veronica sipped on her lemonade as she watched the holo-tv. Vivicka sat next to her and chomped on some chips. Flipping through the pages of a book, Angela sat on the couch opposite of them.

"Ok, those boneheads are really, really late!" Veronica said as she grabbed a chip, "They're gonna get pummeled by my fists as soon as they git home—"

She stopped her ranting when the cartoon she was watching switched over to a picture of a gold tower with ice surrounding its base.

"What the hell?"

Angela's head shot up and looked at the holo-tv, "Veronica, do not change the channel! That is the Mega Mall!"

Veronica looked at Angela in bewilderment. Vivicka sighed in frustration, "Don't you understand? That's where Maddy and Annie are!"

Choking on her chip, Veronica managed to rattle out, "I get it now..."

Angela stood up and paced back and forth. It was clear she was worried.

"This is breaking news at the Mega Mall," the reporter said, "In the middle of fall, we have a sudden icy situation. For some reason, ice has begun to formulate around the building, encasing it in solid ice.

Sources cannot confirm if this was caused by a malfunction of the air conditioning system or if it was just a freak accident. However, we can confirm that one of the upper windows has been broken and shattered. We still cannot say if it pertains to the situation or if it was coincidental..."

"That has to be Levita," Angela said as she sat down and tapped her fingers on the table, "but what are Maddy and Annie doing? I hope they can hold on for a bit longer."

Veronica jumped up and onto the table, "Lets go down there and beat up that ice lady!"

Vivicka and Angela looked up at Veronica and shook their heads in earnest.

"Ver, before we go butt-kicking, I think we should have a plan first," Vivicka said.

"I agree. We should not leap into this without having a strategy," Angela added.

Just then, on the TV screen, the Mega Mall began to defrost and the doors became flooded with people running out of the building. The reporter tried to stop one of the fleeing customers but failed and the camera crew got lost in the crowd of people.

"Did you see Mad or An-chan?" Vivicka said as she squinted at the screen.

All three looked at the screen and searched for a green haired head or a red haired one.

"Any luck?" asked Angela.

"Nope," the two responded.

"That is awkward. Why would this happen? It does not make sense!"

"Angela! We've gotta go down there and find them," Vivicka yelled.

Veronica jabbed the air, "Can't wait to kick around that blue freak again..."

Picking up the phone, Angela tried calling the two missing girls. There was no answer. In fact, the phone couldn't even pick up their signals.

"No answer?" Vivicka asked.

Angela nodded and grabbed her coat from the closet. She wanted to get down to the mall and find out if Maddy and Annie were there or if they had mysteriously disappeared. Veronica and Vivicka followed Angela and were eager to do some fighting.

As they were about to leave, a knock came at the door. Angela paused. The other two did so as well.

"That must be them," Angela said in relief.

"Those dumbheads made us get ready for no reason!" Veronica angrily said as she threw her coat on the couch.

Opening the door, Angela started to scold but stopped suddenly when she pleasantly said, "Welcome! Pardon me, but we must get going."

Vivicka and Veornica both toppled over in outrage. Why was Angela being so nice?

Instead of the missing 'persons', they were greeted by an unwelcome guest. Her long blonde hair swayed slightly as she walked passed Angela and into the house.

"Hey you! Didn't you hear Ange?" Veronica growled.

Vivicka stepped closer to her cousin, "Yeah, git out!"

Angela laughed in embarrassment as she closed the door.

"Sorry abot the intrusion but I really need to talk to—"

Before Sofia could finish, Veronica stood up in front of Vivicka. She glared at the reporter, "Viv doesn't hafta talk to you!"

"I didn't finsh," Sofia said calmly, looking at Angela, "I need to talk to all of you. I've got some questions that you can clear up."

Angela looked at the time. They needed to find Maddy and Annie. Chances were, if they waited too long, the two would have probably met an untimely end.

"I am sorry Ms. Lancaster but we do not have time for this."

"Please Angela, it's about the fire at Mukashi no Tenshi!" Sofia blurted out.

The four were silent.

"S-sit down," Angela said as she took off her coat.

* * *

The ground of the cave was surprisingly very smooth and seemed to be made of a marble-like material. Despite the flaming torches on the rocky black walls, there was still a chill in the air.

Footsteps echoed in the darkness. Chains rattled noisily as it dragged across the floor.

"Pick up your chains, ladies!" Levita commanded, "We don't want these floors getting scratched."

Aquarius and Leo who followed behind Levita, couldn't help but drag the chains across the ground. Their hands were chained together and so were their legs. The weight of the metal was too much for them to carry without dragging. Plus, they got a kick out of annoying their captor.

"Mad, I don't like this," Leo whispered.

"I don't like it either. In all our years on Earth, I've never imagined that this could happen!" Aquarius responded, "We've gotta get outta here or at least contract Ange and the others."

Leo shook her chains as she sensed Levita getting more irritated at the two girls.

"Don't worry, we're Star Buds remember? We can get out of anything. That's why they let us go to Earth," reassured Leo.

"Well, that true, but I got a feeling that we're not in Kansas, or Earth, anymore."

"Kansas?"

"It's from an old Earth movie."

They walked on until Levita stopped at a dead end. She touched her star pendant and the wall before them turned into a small dungeon.

"Not exactly what I call a four star hotel," Aquarius said as she tried to detangle her chains from Leo's.

Levita smirked at her comment. She pushed the two into the newly formed dungeon. She stepped back from the cave as she touched her pendant again. Black bars formed and blocked any way out for the Star Buds.

Gasping, Leo crawled to the bars and held onto them. Shaking them to try to pry them open, she felt faint. The bars glowed in a black aura. Leo fell to the marble ground.

"Mwahahaha!" Levita laughed, "Entertaining, but I've got to go meet Master Sinistogi and talk about my reward. Don't get too drained in there!"

She disappeared in a flash of blue light. Aquarius knelt down next to Leo and moved her away from the bars. It was too dim to see if Leo's eyes were open.

"Leo!" she said as she gently slapped Leo's cheeks, "Wake up!"

Leo slowly began to breath again as she struggled to get up from the ground.

"Mad! What... I... Those bars are seriously nasty business..." she said as she tried to catch her breath.

Aquarius smiled, "At least we've learned not to touch 'em. Good going."

Leo painfully got up and used the walls of the dungeon to keep her up. Aquarius stood up too and tried to lighten Leo's burden by holding Leo's chains.

"So, what do you think Ange is gonna say when she finds out we're not at the mall?"

Leo laughed weakly, "She'd probably ground us or something. No music for me and no TV for you."

Aquarius held the chains in her hands and tried desperately to figure a way out. Leo leaned against the wall as she straightened up her bow.

"Stupid chains," she said, "I could fix my hair if I could reach higher."

"It looks fine."

"Well, if we're stuck here, I might as well do something..." Leo replied.

Aquarius looked down at the chains in her hands. Suddenly, she dropped them. Leo almost hit the ground.

"Hey! You could have told me you were tired!" she said.

"Sorry An-chan, but look! We're chained up, but our hands are still free! We could use our weapons!" Aquarius exclaimed.

"Oh yeah!"

Materializing form the air, two short swords appeared in Aquarius's hands and a mirror staff appeared in Leo's hand.

"Good, now I can lean on this instead of the cold wall with that annoying flushing sound!" Leo said as she hugged her staff.

Aquarius smiled again, "Awesome! Now we just cut these chains open!"

With that, she gathered up all her strength and began slashing at Leo's chains.

"Careful there," Leo said as Aquarius got the chains off of her.

"Hey, I got the job done though. Now look for an escape while I get these suckers off me."

Leo tottered around the small cave but couldn't find one crack in the walls.

"Done!" Aquarius proclaimed, "Who'd have thought these swords would come in handy?"

Leo rested back on the same wall she leaned on beforehand.

"Couldn't find anything," Leo said dejectedly.

Aquarius tried cutting the rock with her swords but it couldn't even make a scratch. She sat down in frustration. Leo closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall.

"I'm just gonna relax right here."

They were both tired and irritated with all that was going on. The darkness was weighing down on them even more than the chains ever did.

"If there was even a slight chance of hope or sign of escape... I might feel a little better..." Aquarius said aloud, "I mean, what would Angela the brain do?

Leo opened her eyes and put her ear closer to the wall, "Be quiet!"

Aquarius replied, "Yeah, she would huh? I think if I just sit here and actually think and be quite I'd get an idea. That' how Ange does it, doesn't she? Be quiet... good one An-chan."

"Listen," Leo said excitedly.

"Listen?" Aquarius said puzzled, "Oh, you mean listen to my inner thoughts? Of course I do that."

"No, I mean listen!" Leo shouted, "Come here and listen to what's on the other side of this rock!"

Aquarius got up and put her head against the wall. She heard sounds of something rushing downwards. It was the flushing sound Leo mentioned earlier.

"It's water!" she exclaimed. "Water!"

Leo got off the wall and turned to Aquarius, "Mad! Do your thing and get us out of here!"

Aquarius stepped back from the wall and put her swords down.

"Leo," she said as she sat cross-legged on the ground, "This may take a while. I'm going to try to tap into the water and try to get a glimpse of what's outside."

Leo nodded, "I understand."

Aquarius touched the wall and closed her eyes...

A faint blue-green glow engulfed her...

She felt the water rushing down... It was a waterfall... there was more water... a red rimmed lake...

* * *

"Master," Levita said as she bowed, "I have them detained in the dungeon."

The dark room was different from the cave she was in earlier. It still had marble black flooring but it also had a marble table and one wall had a square window. A small figure stood by it.

"You have done excellent Levita," the figure at the end of the table said, "Are they all there and ready?"

Levita was afraid he was going to ask that.

"Master Sinistogi," she began, "I could only grab two... I doubt that I could have taken all five of them on."

Sinistogi moved around the table to the window. Levita couldn't see his face. It was always covered.

"You doubt?" he said in anger, "I have given you powers that could destroy hundreds of Sailor Senshi and you _doubt_ you could have given me just five of them?"

Levita looked down and falter in her speech, "M-master, they are strong... I tried my best and isn't that all I could do? I-I have given you what you asked for. What about your end of the deal?"

The smaller figure answer this time, "Brother, you did say to capture them but did not specify how many. Give Levita her earnings and let her leave. Something tells me she's captured more than we can handle..."

Sinistogi looked down at his sister and then at Levita, "Capture me one more and I'll give you what you want. It's just one more favor, dear Levita."

Levita bit her lip from saying any scathing remarks. Instead, she looked up again and bowed.

"I will do as you wish Master," she said and bowing to the smaller figure, "My thanks to you, my lady."

Levita touched her blue pendant and vanished.

"That wasn't nice brother."

He gazed out the small window with his sister and simply said, "We need them."

After a short pause, he added, "We'll deal with the two Sailor Senshi after you have recovered from your 'sight dreaming'."

She nodded. Her gray eyes turned to the red-rimmed lake. She saw that something was different about these Senshi. Her sight dreaming was usually clear. She could see anyone's future. However, these Sailor Senshi were clouded and shrouded in fog.

"The revenge we've so longed for... What those Senshi did to us... They will burn in my hell ten times over..."

The window slowly closed as the darkness blocked out all light.

* * *

Sitting at the table, Angela sipped some tea as Sofia took out some files from her bag.

"It says here that you all transferred from Mukashi no Tenshi," Sofia said as she opened five folders and placed them on the table.

Veronica picked up her file, "Wow, my picture sucks."

Vivicka asked gingerly, "What's this got to do about the fire?"

Angela put her cup down, "And what does this have to do about us besides the fact htat we were former Mukashi students?"

Sofia coughed nervously, "You see, as you know, the school fire that happened on year ago was officially reported as a wire malfunction. But, from recent circumstances, I have reason to believe that the report is wrong."

Angela remained calm but Vivicka and Veronica looked at eatch other in alarm.

"Whatever do you mean?" Angela asked, "I have read the official report. Everything was there."

Sofia shook her head, "Everything was there _except_ for those Star Buds!"

"What?" Vivicka and Veronica shouted in unison.

"Whatever do you mean?" Angela asked again, while she kept her composure.

"You see, I've always been suspicious of that fire report because I actually saw those Star Buds at Mukashi no Tenshi High. Now that I saw them again at Jujo, I absolutely can't believe the report," Sofia explained and she turned to Vivicka, "That's why I need you to tell me exactly what happened that day you fell out the window."

Veronica angrily shouted, "She doesn't have tot ell you anything and for those 'Star Buds', how do we know you actually saw them at Mukashi? You didn't even go there!"

Sofia sighed, "I didn't want to do this, but since I need your help, look at this."

She took out a black and white photograph. The other three leaned in closer to look at it. Angela, for once, showed surprise.

"That's the science room of MT," Vivicka uttered, "and it's on fire."

"I was covering a story on Mukashi's science department that day," Sofia said, "But look, Vivicka, don't these silhouettes look familiar? Like Star Buds?"

She pointed, amid the black and white flames, to a circle of three silhouettes each holding a weapon. One held a staff with a flat, circular head, one held two swords, and the other held a bow.

"I've seen all of these Star buds twice!" Sofia said, "And I've also just seen the one with the spear! Who knows how many Star Buds there are!"

This puzzled Angela. She ran into Sofia the other day, as did Veronica. However, Sofia had never seen Maddy and Annie in Star Bud form again.

"Unless..." she whispered to herself.

Vivicka and Veronica looked at Angela worriedly. They couldn't let Sofia find out any more about them.

Sofia realized they were quiet.

"If you don't believe me, look at this. I just finish developing it," she said as she pulled out pictures of the Mega Mall in ice.

Angela picked them up and looked through them. There was the Mega Mall encased in ice just like the TV report. She kept looking and paused suddenly. She almost dropped the photos when she saw Aquarius and Leo standing in front of a portal.

Veronica and Vivicka jumped behind Angela to view the picture. They almost said something if Angela hadn't stood up so abruptly.

"What?" Sofia asked.

"Let me look at both of these photos under magnification to verify if these are the same people," Angela said as she grabbed the photo of the Mukashi no Tenshi fire.

"S-sure," Sofia said.

Angela went to the other room and quickly made reprints of the photos. She went back into the living room and handed the original pictures back to Sofia.

"Ms. Lancaster, they are interesting photos but you cannot chase a story that is quite near impossible," Angela said as she put her coat on, "I would like to help, but we're late for an appointment."

Veroinca and Vivicka began to put their coat on too.

"Hold on," Sofia said as she stood up, "You can help. I mean, you guys show up from Mukashi no Tenshi and the Star Buds show up too! Plus, Vivicka's probably met them! They probably saved her life that day!"

Vivicka ran to the door, "For the last time, I saved myself. Now, we really hafta go."

She opened the door for Sofia to leave.

Sofia gathered her things and walked out the door. Before she left, she turned around and said, "If you refuse to help me, then I'll be forced to continue on my story blaming the Star Buds for the break-in at Jujo High and the Mega Mall."

"What?" Veronica exclaimed.

"That's right. All evidence points to them. They probably caused that fire a year ago too," she faltered when she said this. Sofia paused and tried to continue talking but couldn't. She walked away and called for a hover-taxi.

The three looked at each other.

"What was that all about?" Vivicka asked, "I'm scared of that creepy girl."

Veronica stepped outside, "And I thought Jujo High was going to be an ordinary school for geniuses. I guess not."

Angela ushered Vivicka out and locked the door.

"We must investigate her later," Anglea said urgently, "I have a feeling something else beside the Star Buds is involved with the fire. For now though, we have to find Annie and Maddy."

"How?" Vivicka said as she wrapped a green scarf around her neck.

"With this," Angela said.

She pulled out a silver cylinder. It was about the size of a pen but had a diameter of ten centimeters.

"Isn't that the healing rod?" Vivicka pointed out.

"My dear, this is more than a healing rod," she replied.

Veronica shrugged, "Whatever, so where're we going so I can call a taxi."

Angela held the rod in her hand, "To the Mega Mall to take our two friends back home."

* * *

Leo began to regain her strength and she examined the black bars in front of the cave. She had nothing better to do. Her partner was busy surveying the outside of the cave by following the water current. All Leo had to do was wait around.

"C'mon Mad, just find some way to escape from this hell hole," Leo thought as she tapped the bar with her staff.

Surprisingly, the black aura didn't appear and she didn't fall down.

"Odd..."

"Annie!" Aquarius said as she took a sharp intake of air.

She opened her eyes and picked up her swords.

"We can totally get of here," she said as she stood up, "From what I saw, there's a waterfall just opposite this wall. If we blast it away, we can follow the waterfall down to this stream that leads to a... red lake."

Leo moved to sit down next to Aquarius, "Huh?"

"Yeah, a red lake, well only the sides of it. But, I think we'll be okay. It's not poisonous or anything."

"Fine, I'll trust your water senses. The other thing though—How do we blast our way out if that wall's unbreakable?"

"That, Star Bud Leo," Aquarius said as she stood up, "is where you are wrong. We're going to blast our way _in_."

Leo looked up at her friend, "You're pure crazy. Maybe you should just rest before you start talking again."

Aquarius laughed and put a hand on Leo's shoulder, "I'll explain it all for ya. Just trust me."

* * *

The hover-taxi stopped at the Mega Mall as the police cars moved out of the complex. Angela, Veronica, and Vivicka left the taxi and ran up to the sidewalk before being stopped by a police officer.

"Great," Veronica whispered, "The only police man in sight for miles and he happens to catch us."

"Excuse me ladies," he said, "But the mall's been closed and I need you to go back home right now."

Vivicka began to panic, "What do we do now? I don't wanna go to jail!"

Angela looked around. Veronica's observation was correct. There was nobody in sight despite the police vehicles and machinery.

"I am truly sorry officer," Angela replied.

"No problem, just doing my job."

"No, I meant I am sorry about this," Angela gestured to Veronica, "Jog his memory."

Veronica smiled, "Not a problem."

The man was puzzled and was about to ask what Angela meant when Veronica sent a powerful punch right at his face. He fell to the floor, knocked out.

"Angela!" Vivicka exclaimed, "You actually sanctioned this? I can't believe you! Awesome!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, my dear," Angela responded, "But only with my permission, mind you."

Veronica stepped over the policeman, "We should have more desperate times so I could pound some more officers."

"Oh, I highly doubt it," Angela said.

The three walked toward the doors of the mall. It was, of course, closed. Angela examined the locks while Veronica and Vivicka peered into the windows.

It was dark in the building and the remnants of the ice were nowhere to be found. Vivicka sat down next to the door and struck a thinking pose.

"What are you doing?" Veronica demanded.

She looked up at her cousin, "Just thinking... what if we do get in there? How are we gonna open that portal thingy? And what if we do? How do we know the other side is gonna be safe? What if it's a trap? What then?"

Veronica raised her eyebrows, "You think too much."

Angela pulled the door open and walked in. Vivicka stood up and followed her in, as did Veronica.

"Ok," Veronica said, "How'd we get in?"

Angela had out her healing rod, "Simple. I adjusted the healing rod's modifications to override the security system."

"Oh! And you got the rod to unlock the door! Very classy Ange, I gotta hand it to ya."

Angela chuckled, "Well, for that, I actually used this."

She pulled out a straightened paperclip.

Amazed, Veronica stopped walking. As she passed Veronica, Vivicka nudged her and whispered, "Desperate times, Ver, desperate times."

Veronica's astonishment faded away as she slowly smiled, "Cool."

She ran to catch up with the others who were near some potted plants. Angela had her healing rod out and she was flashing it around.

"What are you doing?" Vivicka asked as she followed Angela.

Angela stopped and showed Vivicka the rod. She held it at both ends and pulled it apart, extending it. The parts that had just extended had small buttons on it. She pressed one and a holographic screen projected from the rod.

"Whoa," Vivicka said, "I didn't know it could do that."

"It could do many things, dear."

Angela began to move her finger around on the screen and it looked like she was configuring it. Suddenly, the layout of the mall appeared and it was colored oddly.

"You see these colors? They show energy activity," Angela pointed out, "Where it is brightest, that is where the most energy has been used. Plus, it has the percentage of energy if we scan over the area."

Vivicka nodded, "Oh! This is like a heat sensor, but instead of looking for heat, you're looking for energy. I get it; we're gonna find the point of most energy because it takes tons of energy to open up a hole in the air!"

"Exactly. Good job, Viv."

Veronica popped up behind them, "That healing rod can do anything! I want one!"

"Actually, not most healing rods can do this. It is a specially modified rod from SBC," Angela said as she scanned the bathroom door.

Veronica looked at the holographic image, "Ange, why is it all black in this area?"

"That means it has no energy activity."

"Oh... find anything yet?"

"Not really. All energy signs are normal down here."

Angela walked away from the bathroom and sat down on a bench. She took out the reprints of Sofia's pictures. Examining the photo, she tried to figure out the background.

Meanwhile, Veronica and Vivicka looked around at the stores.

"Can you believe someone can hangout in this place for more than ten minutes?" Veronica said, "It's so boring! There's only clothes and more clothes and—a Kenzoku store?!"

Vivicka was looking at some video games when she turned around and saw Veronica leaning, face first, against the glass window of the Kenzoku store.

"Ver! Don't do that! You're getting your face print on the glass!"

"Relax Viv, I just wanna see the inside of the store," Veronica said as she stepped back and stared at the objects on display, "Look! That's Kenzoku's signature belt! And his signature headband!"

Sighing, Vivicka sat down on the ground and waited for Angela to finish her surveillance.

"Veronica! Vivicka!"

"That's Angela calling! Thankfully..." Vivicka said under her breath.

She had to drag Veronica away from the store to get to Angela.

"What's up?" Vivicka said while huffing and puffing.

"I think this is the place," Angela replied.

"Here?" Veronica asked, "We've been at this spot before!"

"Actually, I did not scan it before because it came up black on the map," she said, "But, after analyzing the photos, I decided to scan the area and the energy readings were skyrocketing!"

Vivicka frowned, "Okay, we're here, now what?"

"Now this," Angela said as she pushed in more buttons on the healing rod.

The end of the rod lit up and a surge of electricity shot out from it. Oddly, it began to swirl in the air like a whirlpool out of water.

"Angela!" Vivicka shouted, "It's working!"

Slowly, a rift in the air formed. It grew bigger and bigger until it looked like the portal in the photo.

"Git in!" Veronica yelled, "Before that thing closes for good!"

As she was about to jump into the warp, Angela called for her to halt. She placed herself between the rift and the two young girls.

"We should transform," Angela said, "We do not know what is on the other side."

"Lets do it!" Vivicka shouted as she put her hand in the air.

* * *

Aquarius stood with her two swords pointing at the wall. Leo stood next to her, staff raised high in the air.

"Okay, on three," Aquarius said, "I'll get enough water power from the outside to break the wall and you get ready to deflect whatever water blasts at us."

"Three?" Leo asked, "Alright, but don't make the water so powerful that I can't protect us."

Aquarius looked at Leo, then at the wall, "I can control the water at a certain point; just hope that we don't get to the other point."

Leo gripped her staff tighter, "By all means, start the countdown!"

"Three!"

Aquarius closed her eyes and concentrated on the water. Her swords glowed softly. She envisioned the waterfall redirecting its course to the rocky wall. Suddenly, something clicked in her. She could feel the water now; she could control it.

"Incoming!" she yelled.

Leo looked at her in surprise, "What ever happened to one and two?"

Before she could finish her comments, the cave rumbled and the wall began to crack. A surge of water shot right through. A mix of rocks and water came at them.

"Leo!" Aquarius managed to say.

Leo snapped out of her shock and held the mirror staff at the water.

"Mirror Barrier!"

The mirror glowed and as the light brightened, it grew and engulfed the two Star Buds. The rushing water hit the barrier and broke against it. The water kept coming, however,

Leo yelled out as she kept the mirror staff standing straight in the air, "How long is this gonna last?"

The water kept coming and bigger rocks came flying at them. Aquarius opened her eyes and tried to keep her swords up but the pressure of the water was too heavy for her.

Leo saw the swords slowly falling, "Mad! Keep concentrating! We're gonna die if you don't!"

Aquarius glared at the water surrounding them. She struggled to lift the swords.

"Maddy!"

At the sound of Leo's voice, Aquarius brought the swords up over her head. With a great cry, she slashed the swords down. The rumbling stopped and the water crashed to the ground, no longer flowing inward.

Leo lowered her staff and helped Aquarius stay on her feet.

"Once again," she said, "whatever happened to one and two?"

Aquarius smiled weakly, "You said countdown, so I did."

Their brief victory was clouded by another obstacle. The waterfall became another wall before them.

Leo came to the ledge of the hole they made and looked down, "Uh, are you sure we could make it?"

Aquarius responded, "Well, it's either that... or _her_."

Leo turned around and saw Levita open the bars of the cave with the flick of her hand.

"Let's just stick with Plan A," she said.

"Which one's that?" Aquarius asked.

"Jump!"

With that, both jumped into the waterfall and plummeted down into the red-rimmed lake. Levita walked to the ledge where Leo had stood moments before. She looked down at the two figures, freefalling into the lake.

"Fools," she said under her breath.

Meanwhile, Leo and Aquarius splashed into the torrents and foam at the end of the waterfall.

"Leo!" Aquarius shouted as she came up for air and was pushed back down again from the force of the waterfall.

With all her strength, she swam away from the torrents. Finally, she got away from the waterfall. She treaded water as she looked around for Leo.

"An-chan! An-chan! Where are you?"

There was no sign of her anywhere. Aquarius continued to shout until her voice was hoarse.

"Damn it Annie! Where are you?" she whispered to herself.

A voice from above caught her attention.

"Fools!" Levita yelled as she put her hands into the waterfall, "Master won't like this, so I'm going to put you on ice for a while."

Gradually, the water began to freeze as it fell down. Aquarius started to swim away in alarm.

"If I don't find land soon, that ice'll turn _me_ into land," she thought as she continued to powerfully stroke her arms and kick her legs in the water.

The waterfall was now completely frozen and the base of it was turning to ice as well. The ice seemed to fan out from there.

"No matter how far you swim, the ice will get you," Levita said as she took her hands out of the ice that was once rushing water.

Somehow, she penetrated the wall of ice in front of her and reappeared, levitating on the other side. She slowly descended, softly landing at the edge of the forming ice. Levita grinned as she knelt down and placed her hands in the water. She made a small circular motion in it.

Aquarius stopped swimming as ice surrounded her, leaving her floating in a small circular section of water in the middle of the ice.

"Alright lady, you had your fun, just end it!" Aquarius said to Levita.

Levita stood up and brushed off her hands.

"As you wish," she replied as she aimed her palm at Aquarius.

With a flash of blue light, an ice shard appeared. With a smile, she simply uttered, "Nice knowing you, kid."

The shard flew straight at Aquarius. She closed her eyes and waited for the blow. She felt something whizzing past her, but couldn't tell what it was. Although, she knew it was anything but the deadly icicle. Aquarius, startled, opened her eyes to see a fire arrow penetrating the shard and melting it.

Another fire arrow flew in front of Levita and into the icy ground. The ice melted from the extreme heat. Levita backed away as she looked around for the culprit.

"Who are you?" she shrieked, "Come out! Show yourself!"

Aquarius took advantage of the distraction to climb out of the water and onto the ice. She knew whose fire arrows they were; it could only belong to one person.

She gingerly began to run in the direction the arrow came from. Catching her attention, Levita glared at Aquarius.

"More friends of yours?" she said, "Good, the Master _did _want all five of you and now he'll get it."

Aquarius began to dash across the ice while Levita slowly followed her. Another fire arrow flew in the air and landed near Levita. The ice melted and the woman's foot cracked through the surface.

"Curse these arrows!" she yelled as she tried to climb out of the hole that formed around her.

Aquarius stopped and shouted out, "Sagittarius! Where are you?"

Sagittarius's familiar voice answered her back, "Keep running! We are straight ahead!"

Aquarius kept running and eventually she came to a pink line in the ice. The other side was land! Fresh green grass!

She leapt over the colored ice and landed on the welcome land, something she was greatly thankful for. Her legs, however, were fatigued from swimming and the cold water. Giving away to the numbness, she fell to the ground. Her head was down when four shadows approached her.

"What took you so long Mad?"

Aquarius looked up to find her four companions: Leo, Sagittarius, Single Virgo, and Double Virgo.

"An-chan! I thought you drowned!" she said as she sprang up to hug Leo.

"Calm down, calm down," Leo said as she tried to keep her balance, "I thought I drowned too but I ended up on land and met these three. You must've swam the opposite way!"

Aquarius let go of Leo and looked at the others, "And how in the world did you guys get here?"

"Ange, here, thought of an awesome scheme to get your butts outta danger," Double Virgo said.

"I will explain later!" Sagittarius said as she looked over Aquarius's shoulder, "It looks like Levita has recovered!"

They turned to the ice lake and sure enough, a furious Levita was heading toward them.

"What do we do? What do we do? We're gonna die!" Single Virgo babbled.

Double Virgo punched her cousin's head, "Cool it Viv, Ange'll just open that wormhole again. Right, Ange?"

Sagittarius had her healing rod out and was already punching in numbers.

"I must recalibrate these numbers to configure with this new setting," she replied, "I just need time."

"In other words," Aquarius said, "We hold off ice woman."

Leo held out her hand and her staff appeared, "Lets go for it!"

Double Virgo and Leo headed off with Aquarius and Single Virgo behind them.

"Hey lady!" Double Virgo yelled, "Take this!"

She pointed her spear at Levita who was at the edge of the frozen lake. A gust of wind shot out and went straight at her.

"I think I got her," Double Virgo said triumphantly.

The wind died down and Levita was still there. She smiled as she lifted her star pendant.

"I won't fall for that again. Here, take this instead!"

The star lit up and glowed. First, it was blue then turned a brilliant, bright white.

"I will enjoy this!" she cried.

As the four braced for impact, they noticed a black spectre form behind Levita. It was formless at first then it solidified into a figure in a black robe.

"Levita. Stop," the low voice said.

Levita's anger was quelled for a moment. There was a flicker of horror on her face, but it soon dissolved into rage again. The glow of the star slowly extinguished as the black figure came closer to her.

"Eh? What's going on?" Leo asked.

"Is that thing helping us?" Double Virgo exclaimed.

The figure spoke again in its low voice, "Levita, you may leave now. I will destroy them myself."

"He definitely isn't helping us," Single Virgo said as she grabbed onto Double Virgo's arm, "and he definitely doesn't want us around."

The robed figure turned to the four Star Buds. Levita, on the other hand, growled in annoyance and disappeared in a blaze of blue light. The figure held out its robed arms to the Star Buds.

"Sailor Senshi! I have waited for this day... I have been looking for you ever since that fire!"

They were silent. Confusion pretty much overwhelmed any feelings of fear that the Star Buds had. This figure was threatening them for apparently no reason except for the 'fire'.

"Um... Ange?" Leo said, "Could you speed things along? This Halloween reject is getting on my nerves and I really wanna listen to this new album I bought today."

Sagittarius was still fidgeting with the controls of the healing rod, "I almost have it, just hold on a bit longer."

"You heard her gang," Aquarius said as she stepped forward next to Leo, "Lets just blast its head off."

The figure laughed, "Ah, the legendary bantering of the Senshi! I thought it was just a myth."

The four exclaimed at the same time, "What?!"

"Okay, this crumb lord's got a problem in his brain. What the heck is he talking about?" Double Virgo angrily said.

"Time to end this," he said as a black energy sphere appeared between his hands.

The clouds began to darken and searing white lightning flashed from the sky. The lightning crackled and hissed. More and more lightning erupted from the sky as the black energy sphere grew larger and larger.

The frozen lake began to shatter and break apart. The ice caps splashed and hit one another as the lightning crashed down on the lake. Waves of water came up and down as the ground shook with tremendous force.

"Okie, once again, what the hell is he talking about?" Double Virgo shouted over the crackling of the thunder.

"This is excellent!" Sagittarius said as she joined the others.

They all looked at her and pointed at he robed figure and his gargantuan energy sphere.

Sagittarius nodded, "Point taken. I should have explained myself. This whole energy surge can accelerate the opening of the portal. We just need a few more seconds for it to open."

"A few more seconds? From what I see, we won't need to open it because we won't be around to hop into it!" Double Virgo replied.

"Whoa there!" Aquarius said, "We can obviously defend ourselves!"

Leo held out her staff, "Agreed!"

"Somebody do something!" Single Virgo yelled suddenly, "It's coming for us!"

The land continued to quake beneath their feet. The energy sphere was launched from the black figure's hands and shot straight at them.

"Barriers up!" Sagittarius shouted, "Fire Barrier!"

A red glow appeared around her as she stood facing the incoming blast.

"Good thinking Ange. Thunder Barrier!" Single Virgo shouted as she glowed in a green aura.

"Wind Barrier!" Double Virgo said as her light purple barrier appeared.

"Water Barrier!" Aquarius shouted.

Leo looked over at Aquarius, "Wow, for the second time today, Mirror Barrier!"

Aquarius glowed in an aquamarine haze while Leo glowed in an orange haze.

The dark sphere shot at the five glowing figures. For a moment, the barriers fused together to create a white blaze. The darkness and the light contacted. The impact created a chasm between the lake's edge and the land. Water began to spill into the opening as the land began to crumble. The Star Buds felt the strength of the sphere as it tried to break its way into their barrier.

* * *

The sky was clear and the lake was calm again, partly because, in fact, there was no more lake. The crack in the earth swallowed all the water. All that was left of the lake was a deteriorating crater with a faint red outline.

Single Virgo slowly opened her eyes and looked around, "Guys? I think it's over. What just happened?"

"That was easier than I thought," Double Virgo said aloud, "And yeah, what _did _happen?"

"I just saw a bright white light and I was thinking that we all were gonna die!" Leo said in disbelief.

Aquarius grinned, "We're just strong, that's all."

The robed figure roared in anguish, "What is the meaning of this? That blast would've annihilated tens of thousands of Senshi!"

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up again and the ground shook.

"Great, another damn attack," Double Virgo muttered.

"It is the portal!" Sagittarius exclaimed, "Hurry!"

The portal opened up behind them. The swirling wormhole grew.

"All in favor of not sticking around with that thing, jump in!" Leo yelled as they dashed to the portal and entered it.

The figure glided toward it but was too late. The portal was closing in and became too small for it to enter. It closed at an alarmingly fast rate.

"Those Senshi..." he said.

Another robed figure appeared beside him, "Brother, they seem... more like stars..."

* * *

Leo jumped out first, then came Aquarius followed by Single Virgo, Sagittarius, and lastly, Double Virgo. The portal closed abruptly.

"Remind me not to step in one of those things again," Aquarius said.

Double Virgo whipped out her spear, "Do you guys know where we are?"

Single Virgo suddenly became alarmed, "Uh-oh... We better get outta here before—"

It was too late. Leo and Aquarius realized that they were alone in the mall and everything was at their feet.

"Lets go for it!" Leo cried out as Aquarius grabbed a shopping bag, seemingly out of thin air.

Sagittarius plopped down on the bench. Single Virgo did so as well.

"Hey Ange, how in the world did our barriers fend off that super powerful attack?" she asked as Leo and Aquarius dashed away from the furious Double Virgo.

Sagittarius pondered a while as she remembered the barriers turning white. Finally, she replied, "As for as I can tell, I think we combined powers some how."

Single Virgo's jaw almost dropped and her eyes widened, "You can't be serious! We've never done that before! I don't even think that's possible!"

The older Star Bud smiled at her, "I suppose... Well, lets go home for now."

Meanwhile, Double Virgo acquired the awful task of dragging the two shop-crazed girls out of the stores and out the door...

* * *

Darkness surrounded her. She couldn't see. Her sight was taken from her. Somehow, she felt this before...

"Veronica!" Vivicka yelled in her ear, "Wake up! We're gonna be late for school!"

Veronica opened her eyes. The light from the window blinded her for a moment. Her sight slowly came back to her.

"C'mon! Let's go! I don't want to be late!"

Veronica, in her near-sightless state, somehow managed to punch Vivicka right in the head, "Shut up! I got it, you little look-a-like!"

Sulking, Vivicka walked out of the room while rubbing her head. Veronica smiled at her accuracy. She got up and stretched. Seconds later, she heard Vivicka's voice calling out to Angela.

"That tattletale brat!" Veronica muttered.

She brushed her teeth, got dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen where Maddy, Annie, Angela, and Vivicka sat the dining table, finishing their breakfasts.

"Do we hafta to go to school?" Veronica complained, "We got a ball of energy thrown at us last night! Can't we just sleep?"

Angela chuckled and cheerfully said, "Of course we can sleep, after school that is. Today is Friday after all and we have the whole weekend to rest!"

Veronica trained in the gym every single day and had no idea how Angela had so much energy to do all these things. Finally, Veronica acquiesced, "Fine! But if we run into anymore robe-wearing-energy–orb-throwing-mutants, I get to hit it first! I'm aching to do some hurtin'... heh heh..."

Annie looked at the time, "As much as we would love to hear you rant about your violent requests, we should get going."

"Fine!" Veronica said as the other four took their things and left the house.

"Hey, I didn't eat nothing yet!"

Vivicka popped her head back into the house, "That's what you get for waking up late!"

A toaster flew by, narrowly missing her head, followed by Veronica yelling, "Shut up!"

* * *

Vivicka paused to look up at the Jujo High building. She continued walking to catch up with the other four. They were almost at the doors of the school when Sofia greeted them from behind.

"Hi again," Sofia said, "I just need to talk to Vivicka for a bit."

Veronica angrily snapped, "You again! Can't you take a hint and lever her alone?"

Angela intervened before Veronica could go on, "Sofia, Vivicka had a long day yesterday, what with all the first day assignments for school. Please, giver her more time."

Sofia's pleasant disposition gave way to a cold temperament, "Listen here, I need her interview and I'll do anything for it! I just need a source, meaning Vivicka, and I can prove those Star Buds were the cause of all of this! Now move aside and—"

"What are you talking about? No way!" Annie said as she ushered Vivicka to the door.

"She is not going to say anything to a pushy overachiever like you," Maddy added, "Lose the attitude, please."

Sofia shook her head, "I don't know what you're hiding but I can assure you that no matter what, my story on the Star Buds will be printed and sold, with or without Vivicka's assistance."

She turned and was about to walk away when Vivicka pushed past Maddy and Annie and stopped her, "Wait."

She paused.

"I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you."

Annie and Veronica were about to pounce on Vivicka but Angela stepped up first.

"Vivicka," she said, "Is this what you want to do?"

She nodded confidently.

"I trust your judgment. We all do," Angela said.

Veronica entered the building and slammed the door. Annie and Maddy waited for Angela and then went to their class.

Sofia took out her recorder, "Alright. Let's step into my office, shall we?"

* * *

In the depths of the caves, cold blue eyes stared out of an opening of the rocky wall.

"Master... You lied... What good are your promises now...I must go back there... to claim what is mine...my freedom..."

* * *

Veronica didn't feel like going to class. Instead, she sat on top of the main building and looked out at the rest of the campus. Across from the main building was the biology building. In between them, there was the quad, the trees, and interesting looking bridge made to look like it was made of air.

She found some rocks and threw them off the side of the building. As she threw the last one down, she saw something in the distance.

"Oh cripes! Not again!"

She watched the blue light come closer to the biology building.

"Show time for the Star Buds..."

* * *

Vivicka sat in the comfortable black leather chair. She was feeling anything but comfortable at the moment.

"And that concludes our interview. Thank you Ms. Kaminari. You have certainly shed new light on my story. As a word of warning, lay low a few days after the article is printed."

Vivicka nodded, "T-Thank you, Ms. Lancaster."

She got off of the seat and as she walked out, looked across to the other building. She saw a familiar blue light landing on top of it.

"Oh no..." she said as she ran down the hall.

* * *

Annie lifted the test tube over the fire, "Who could have known that 20th century science was so easy?"

Maddy had her book open to a picture of a paramecium.

"Annie, why are you heating water?"

"Shh! I wanna look like I'm doing work."

"We're studying cell life. Heating plain water won't get you anywhere."

"Oh stop being an Angela, Mad. I'm tired from all that shopping yesterday."

Angela walked up to their lab table, "Annie, I am impressed that you are further studying the curriculum! What inspired you so?"

Annie smiled and continued to heat the test tube.

"Hey Ange, do you think Vivicka's alright?" Maddy asked, "I mean, she's gonna tell her the whole truth. Everything!"

Angela sat down, "You see Maddy, an old poet once wrote, 'The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind'. I think Vivicka will be fine."

The room shook suddenly. Students looked up at the ceiling.

Maddy looked up and then back at Angela, "Are you sure about this?"

* * *

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Aquarius asked.

"Sure as ever," Sagittarius replied.

The alarm kept ringing as the five Star Buds circled the pendant at a distance. The pendant stopped glowing for a moment and then a light beam shot out from it to the sky. It dissipated and Levita appeared again with the pendant around her neck.

"Your cheap tricks won't work again," she said.

"You should have stayed down Levita," Aquarius shouted.

"Yeah, that pendant looks better on me!" Leo said as she prepared her mirror beam attack.

Levita slowly moved to look at each Star Bud surrounding her. They had their weapons aimed at her. Here, they were the key to her freedom. She had only need to grasp it. She was so close...

"Master Sinistogi underestimated you Sailor Senshi," she hissed, "I won't."

"Sure," Double Virgo replied.

Whoosh

Sagittarius's arrow hit Levita's pendant. The arrow blazed brightly for a moment, then feel to the ground in ashes. Levita fell to the ground next. Her blue pendant turned a translucent gray. She clutched at it as if it were her heart.

Sagittarius walked up to the bent figure, "Give this message to your Master: We are not Sailor Senshi. We are Star Buds and if any one of you come back again, we will not hold back."

Leo and Aquarius were startled. They had never heard Sagittarius speak so harshly. The Virgos looked at her and she had her arrow pointed right between Levita's eyes.

"It was a weak threat, but c'mon, it's Angela," Double Virgo commented.

Single Virgo nodded profusely.

Levita glared at them and disappeared in a flash of blue light. The Star Buds stood on top of the building and looked down at the students and the police who had just arrived.

"So, Viv, you told her eh?" Double Virgo asked.

"Yup," she replied, "I told her everything. Actually, I told her the truth. I told her that the Star Buds saved my life back when I was stuck outside the window. You see, I told her the truth, not the _whole_ truth."

Aquarius, Leo, and Double Virgo were apparently impressed with their youngest team member's thinking because they took turns continually patting her head.

"You knew didn't you?" Aquarius asked Sagittarius, who was examining the spot where Levita had been.

"Of course. I knew our little Vivicka had common sense."

"Hah! So did I!" Leo exclaimed.

Double Virgo punched Leo's shoulder, "No you didn't! Liar!"

The two argued as Aquarius, feeling extremely happy, yelled out, "We're Star Buds and don't you forget it!"

End: Episode One

Note: There was one little line that I borrowed from "Princess Bride". I know it's just one line, but I'd feel bad if I didn't add a disclaimer for it. Thus, disclaimer: there is one line in this story that belongs to "Princess Bride".


	2. Monsters Galore and More

Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. Also, I decided to take someone's advice and broke these chapters up to make them shorter. It's easier for the reader and for myself. Btw, since it's broken up, you won't see how this part connects with the first chapter until the later parts.

Episode Two: Monsters Galore and More!

Early HALLOWEEN EDITION!

It was a sunny day at Jujo High. From where Veronica Kaze sat, she could see the clear blue sky and the other school buildings. A crumbled paper ball flew over her head and hit the boy in front of her. She slumped forward, her bushy black hair touching the desk. These paper ball battles were now part of her daily routine. Another ball whizzed passed her desk. The boys were now beginning to increase their artillery.

Veronica sighed as the teacher continued his boring lecture. He obviously chose to ignore her particular corner. Thus, she picked up her pencil and began to scribble on her desk. She was intensely working on her doodle when the teacher called on her.

"Miss Kaze, can you kindly tell the class what the book was about?"

She didn't look up from her desk.

"Ummm... Pirates and missing treasure?" she answered, continuing to scribble.

"Well, well, well, it seems somebody's been paying attention," he said sarcastically. "Detention. An hour after class for not keeping up with the class!"

At this, she dropped her pencil. It rolled off her desk and clattered on the tile ground. She sat straight up with her hands about to rip out her hair. She held back a scream and managed to angrily mutter, "Not again! Angela's gonna kill me!"

Of course, making matters worse, four paper balls from four different directions managed to hit her head. Another held back scream...

* * *

Vivicka Kaminari raised her hand to answer a question. She bobbed up and down, causing her green pigtails to fly wildly about.

"Miss Tencho!" she said excitedly. "Pick me! Pick me!"

Vivicka was always enthusiastic about school, but ever since Ms. Haruna went on vacation for the last two weeks, she couldn't have been happier. Not to say that Ms. Haruna was a bad teacher. In fact, she was always ecstatic and gung-ho about education. However, she didn't teach in the same style as the substitute teacher, Ms. Tencho, whom Vivicka had come to admire.

Miss Tencho smiled as she finally picked Vivicka, "Alright Vivicka, you can answer."

"It's 100 volts!" she replied as she returned Miss Tencho's smile.

"Good job as usual! I'm impressed. You didn't even use a calculator, not even for the conversions!"

Vivicka reveled in her praise and beamed as she folded her hands over her desk. The other students looked at her as if she had something growing out of her head. They turned back to Miss Tencho.

"Alright class, we have five more minutes left. I'll pass back your literature exams and you can just relax or finish up some homework," she said as she adjusted her glasses.

She was quite young for a teacher but she had a lot of experience working with students.

Vivicka raised her hand again, "Can I help?"

Miss Tencho smiled, "Of course you can."

* * *

Everyone dashed out of class and went home, except for Veronica. She sat at her desk, humming a little tune. Her humming was interrupted by a loud 'Hurrah!'.

"Hey Veronica! I aced my literature test. Isn't that grand?" said the happy Vivicka who popped into Veronica's classroom.

The teacher looked at Vivicka and gave her a big smile, "Well little lady, your sister earned herself another detention."

Vivicka gasped, "You said the 'D' word!"

"She's not my sister, only a look-a-like," Veronica said to her teacher and then turned to her bubbly cousin, "You tell the gruesome twosome and Angela that they could go home without me. I'm stuck here for an hour."

Vivicka nodded and skipped out the door. The teacher glared at Veronica. Veronica returned the glare.

"We have a whole hour. I'm sure you've got something else to do besides looked at me," he said as he returned to grading papers.

Veronica sighed and began to hum a tune again while scribbling on her desk.

* * *

Once Vivicka got out of the classroom, she looked at her watch and pressed a button on the side of it. The face of the watch turned into a black screen. Suddenly, Angela's familiar face appeared. Usually, her shoulder lengthed blue hair was down but now it was tied up. She must have been working in the lab.

"Hi Viv!" she said.

Vivicka waved to her watch, "Hey Ange! Ver's got deten—I mean, she has to stay afterschool today."

Angela frowned but she soon smiled again, "Okay then. Do you mind waiting for Ver, Viv? I do not want her to go home by herself."

"Alright!" she replied. "I could go see Miss Tencho! Oh yeah, I aced my lit test!"

"I am proud of you Viv. Keep it up—"

Angela's face was now hidden behind two smiling faces. One had greenish-blue hair that was braided down to her waist. That was Maddy. She had to bend down a little to talk into Angela's watch. The other one was Annie who had long red hair that was tied up. She kept tapping at the watch screen.

"Viv! If you keep studying, you're head's gonna explode!" Annie yelled.

"Yeah, we don't want your brains everywhere, y'know!" Maddy said.

Somehow, Angela regained her arm and said quickly, "See you back home!"

The screen went black again and it returned to its normal watch face. Vivicka scratched her head and remembered that she was going to visit Miss Tencho. She walked to the elevator that was only a few feet away from Veronica's classroom and entered it. The doors closed as she waited to go down.

They had to relocate her class to a different room because they were repairing the broken windows of her former room. She also thought that they wanted to keep clear of that classroom for a while.

The elevator doors opened as she stepped out. She liked the new location of the room though. It was a floor under Veronica's so she could go meet up with her cousin faster. Vivicka got to the classroom and looked in.

"Miss Tencho?" she asked hesitantly as she walked in. "Are you here? It's Vivicka."

She looked around the classroom. It was odd that nobody was there, especially with the door wide open. Vivicka shrugged and sat down at a desk. She didn't think Miss Tencho would mind that she was in the room.

As she took out her homework, she felt something pass the door. She looked up but didn't see anything.

"Hello?" she said aloud.

Vivicka shrugged again and continued with her work.

"I'll just wait here until Miss Tencho comes back. I can show her my new project," she said to herself.

* * *

An hour later...

"Well Kaze, you are free to go," said the teacher.

Veronica got up in relief and ran out the door with paper flying out of her bag. She slid on the tile ground and collided with a short girl.

"Veronica! Watch where you're going!" Vivicka yelled who was slightly dazed from the impact.

"Sorry!" she angrily replied. "Why're you here anyway?"

"Well, Angela said to make sure you come straight home after school. That's what I'm doing," Vivicka said.

Veronica stood up and straightened her jacket, "Why'd they send a kid to watch me?"

Vivicka glared at her, "I'm not some little kid that you could push around and insult! I'm just a kid who demands some respect around here."

Her cousin looked down at her, "Viv, why are you talking like this? Did the teacher not give you extra credit or something? You want me to punch her?"

Vivicka looked alarmed, "No, no, no Ver! Don't do that! Don't hurt Miss Tencho! She just wasn't in her room, that's all."

Veronica raised an eyebrow, "Fine. But if you still need that punch, just tell me."

Both girls walked toward the elevator. As it opened, Veronica felt a weird shock in her head. It seemed like a warning. Just when she recovered, Vivicka had stepped into the elevator.

"Don't go!" Veronica yelled, but Vivicka could not escape the sliding doors. The last thing Veronica saw was Vivicka's scared expression as the doors closed abruptly.

"Ah great... just great..." she grumbled.

* * *

As Vivicka tried to get off, the elevator shut down. The lights dimmed and flickered. Finally, it just shut off. Vivicka kept pressing the emergency button.

"This cannot be happening! It can't just stop!" she said as she picked up the phone. Flinging it down, she realized that it too wasn't working.

All she felt was the coldness of the transparent walls. The darkness was beginning to settle in. She tried ramming against the sides, but nothing would budge. Looking down, she saw light. It was probably a few feet under her, from where she stood.

"That must be the first floor," she thought.

Kneeling down, she tried pounding on the floor when suddenly she stopped and heard a low groan. She squinted her eyes to see better. Three pale looking figures staggered toward the bottom of the elevator.

They managed to open the elevator doors and started to ram the bottom of the capsule Vivicka was in.

"What's going on?!"

Meanwhile...

Veronica tried to pry open the elevator doors. When that didn't work, she tried punching them but could only redden her knuckles.

"Damn door! Why won't you open?" she yelled furiously. She looked around for a teacher or somebody to help her. She finally decided to run back to her homeroom.

As she got to the door, she felt another shock. It was the same shock she got last time. Shaking the odd feeling off, she stepped back.

"This could only mean one thing—Danger," she whispered.

Veronica took a deep breath and entered the room. Nobody was in there, yet she knew the teacher had to be in there. There was only two ways to get off this floor, the elevator or the stairs. Obviously, she would have known if he wanted to take the elevator because she was busy pounding at it and he couldn't have taken the stairs because it was located past the elevator. No doubt, her teacher would have stopped and scolded Veronica for trying to deface school property.

"Anybody here? It's Kaze! I need some help!" she said to the empty classroom. Nothing answered her but the ticking clock. She slowly moved toward the teacher's desk. All of a sudden, a head popped up from under the chair.

"Well! Miss Kaze! Getting some help, are you? More like helping yourself to some answers off my desk?" the teacher said with a smirk. "Surprise, I caught you."

Veronica couldn't believe him. Her cousin was trapped in the elevator and he was busy setting up a trap for her.

"I wasn't trying to cheat! I came to ask if you could help me get Vivicka out of the elevator because it shut down or something!"

He grinned, "What a silly excuse! Vivicka came an hour ago! Don't try your little tricks on me. When I tell Principal Jujo—No, the school board!—what you've done, you'll be kicked out of her for good—"

Veronica stopped listening and looked at him with great vehemence, "Fine then, I'll get her out myself!"

The teacher stood up and was about to say something about her insolence when a hand from the wall grabbed his head. Slowly a head and a body emerged from the wall. The being that had appeared was pale and lifeless with blood dripping from its mouth.

"What the heck are you?!" shouted Veronica. The thing tightened his grip on the teacher's head and pulled him closer. He opened his mouth to reveal sharp white fangs. Then, something happened that Veronica wished she would never witness again.

The thing bit her teacher's neck and it seemed like the blood was draining out his body. Finally, when the teacher was as pale the thing that sucked it dry, his blood-drained body fell to the ground with a simple sickening thud.

Veronica stepped slowly back towards the door, hoping the thing wouldn't notice her. Unfortunately, the cold blue eyes rimmed with a thin dark red looked up at her. Veronica stopped moving. The thing had a dark blue velvet cloak draped around him. His clothes seemed like it was from the Renaissance era.

Veronica blinked and she regained her composure. Clearing her throat, she said, "Aren't you vampire things not supposed to be out right now? Ain't you... supposed to burn?"

Amazingly, the thing laughed, "Vampire? Pitiful..."

She began to inch toward the door again, "Then just what the hell are you?"

He paused, searching his mind for the word, "Zom... pire."

Before Veronica could make a break for it, he jumped toward her. Reacting instinctively, she kicked him square in the face, sending him back to the ground and stumbling backwards. The 'zompire' screamed in amusement.

Veronica ran out the classroom and toward the elevator. In the midst of her panic, she had forgotten that the elevator had broken down. She couldn't open it. Once again, before she could run away and get to the stairs, the zompire was right behind her, baring his fangs.

* * *

Vivicka was more than panicked at the moment. She was having a mental and physical breakdown. She couldn't move and she couldn't think. A bump was forming up on the floor. Finally, a pale hand punctured through. The pale hand grasped her leg.

"Ah! What's this thing?" Vivicka screamed.

Two more hands reached through. The hole in the ground was getting wider and Vivicka was standing right above it. She tried desperately to wriggle free of the hand that grabbed her leg but the grip was too strong. There was more groaning. A head emerged and it looked faintly familiar.

"M-Miss Tencho!" Vivicka shouted. Her teacher's eyes were dull and her skin was an eerie white. Her once well-groomed hair was an unruly mess, half of it covering her face. From what Vivicka could see, there was some red lipstick covering her face.

Vivicka's eyes widened as she realized that it wasn't lipstick. It was blood. Ms. Tencho was struggling to get through the hole but still held fast to Vivicka's leg. Vivicka frantically tried to move to the corner and away from the emerging teacher.

"Don't eat me Ms. Tencho!"

Ms. Tencho was leaning forward, half way through the hole. She opened her mouth to reveal gleaming white fangs and was about to devour the girl's leg when a huge clunk hit the top of the elevator capsule followed by a thud causing it to go all the way down. Splatters of blood and guts were everywhere. Somehow, Miss Tencho's upper body was strewn against the wall with blood pouring out of her waist.

"MISS TENCHO!!!"

Fifteen Minutes Earlier...

Veronica couldn't move as she faced the oncoming zompire. He dashed toward her at full speed. If she timed it right, she could cause some serious damaged to it. As he came closer, she ducked and before he could stop himself, he crashed into the elevator door. Veronica was crouched on the ground and the thing was right above her.

He growled ferociously as he grabbed her head until her whole body was off the floor. He did this, amazingly, with one hand and easily too, since he was almost six feet tall. Veronica kicked and struggled to get out his grasp.

"Cripes! Lemme go you bastard!" she yelled out.

The zompire flung her against the elevator door while still holding her head. Blood spilled from her mouth.

"Insolent wretch," he said, seething in anger.

Veronica, despite feeling the blood rise in her throat, rolled her eyes at his cliché. Does this guy take lessons from TV bad guys? Unfortunately, he saw this and became angrier.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I will be your master, your life. You will do all that I say for I am the ancient Azure and you will bow to me," he growled.

He hit her against the elevator door again with so much force that the door fell down and caused a big clunk . Veronica heard a scream and remembered Vivicka being trapped. Azure still held her head and she was dangling over the black hole where the elevator was supposed to be.

Veronica glared at him and spit blood in his face. She didn't know if this was to entice him or insult him. Either way, she wanted to aggravate him.

"Or better yet, I should just destroy you," he said.

When he was about to let her go, she grabbed his hand, pushed off the insides of the elevator with her legs, and pulled him down so that he would fall first.

"I won't die that easily, punk!" Veronica exclaimed with a fiery look in her eyes.

As they were falling, she jumped up and stomped on Azure's stomach with both feet. Thud He smashed into the top of the elevator capsule with Veronica standing on top of him. The capsule started to move down. Azure was knocked out. A deafening scream reverberated throughout the elevator.

"MISS TENCHO!!!"

Veronica hastily opened the emergency door on top of the elevator capsule and jumped down, landing amidst a bloody mess. Vivicka was in the corner, rocking back and forth. Veronica knew they had to start moving before more zompires appeared.

"Come on Vivicka, we gots ta go," she said as she grabbed her traumatized cousin and ran out the elevator. The zompires had opened the door previously.

They kept running down the hall. Veronica held onto Vivicka's hand tightly. She was practically dragging her. They had to get to the front door. It wasn't far now. All they had to do was run straight and there it'd be.

"Miss Tencho..." Vivicka said in horror.

Veronica saw the front door, "There! C'mon!"

They busted out the door and into the quad. She stopped and gasped for air. Vivicka fell limply to the floor. Veronica cursed as she saw what was ahead of them.

All the teachers, all the staff members, and some students were aimlessly reeling and lurching around the quad. All had a lifeless quality like Azure or Miss Tencho. They were, in short, zompires. Veronica looked past these creatures and saw a normal street and the normal McJujo restaurant [well, it's similar to a restaurant we all know...]. Normal people were actually walking by the school but didn't seem to notice the zompires. Veronica tried to assess the situation and see the best possible way to get out.

Veronica looked down at Vivicka. She was shaking and kept mumbling Miss Tencho.

"Viv, we gotta charge through the middle," she whispered to her cousin.

"Th-they're illusions, right?" Vivicka said frantically.

"Be smarter than that Viv. You saw Miss—I mean, those zompires. They're real."

For the first time, Vivicka saw how badly injured Veronica was. She was fighting for air and her head was bleeding. Vivicka took a deep breath.

"Lets go!" she screamed.

The zompires stopped walking and turned toward the noise. They were going toward the front door.

"Great, blow our cover Viv," Veronica yelled and grabbed Vivicka's arm, "Charge!"

The two girls ran across the quad with amazing agility. They dodged zompires when they could and when they couldn't, Veronica just had to beat them down. For some reason, the zompires were slow. They moved stiffly which was to the advantage of the two girls.

Finally, they got to the edge of the sidewalk and were about to step onto it when all of a sudden they felt time stop for a few seconds. It felt like they ran into an invisible wall. Time resumed again and they fell on the sidewalk. Vivicka looked back at they school.

"Whoa! Look!" Vivicka exclaimed.

Veronica saw the Jujo High buildings and the front quad. There were no zompires.

Vivicka fainted...

End: Part I of Episode II


	3. Monsters Galore and More, Part II

Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. Also, I decided to take someone's advice and broke these chapters up to make them shorter. It's easier for the reader and for myself.

Note: I have replaced the horizontal line break with "XXXX". Not that it matters, I just wanted to make a note of that. Enjoy!

Episode II, Part II: Monsters Galore and More

Angela sat on the sofa, flipping through a book. She sighed as she checked her watch. An hour had passed and she began to worry. Maddy was in the kitchen and noticed Angela's nervousness.

"What's up Ange? You know those little rascals never do what they're told. Don't worry 'bout it!" she said happily.

Angela smiled, "Well, I am not worried about Veronica and Vivicka. It is Sofia I am worried about. We were supposed to meet here after she completed some work at school."

"So, she probably got too worked up about something and forgot."

"She is not one to do that. Besides, we are working on a school project."

Maddy sighed in frustration as she made her way to the living room with her soda, "Ange, why in the world are you so chummy with her? Don't you remember the psycho-pushy-reporter-chick who ticked us off real bad?"

"Of course I do, but if you take the time to know her, she is a nice person."

Maddy nodded slowly.

"Really!" Angela replied to her skepticism.

"There must be something else behind this, Ange. You just don't go waltzing around making friends with potential enemies."

"Well, besides having a partner who actually does work," Angela began.

"Hey, me and Annie do work! You just don't think it's good enough."

Angela continued, ignoring Maddy's comment, "I can also take this opportunity to resolve some questions Sofia has been having about our past."

Maddy almost choked on her drink, "Sh-she even asks questions about us? Hasn't she ever heard of curiosity killing the cat? Anyway, what story did you spin?"

"Well, I just told her that our families are close friends and that they believe we could live independently while they worked on their intergalactic business."

"Are you kidding? And she fell for it?" Maddy had to hold back her laughter.

Angela put her book down on the table, "She believed it and she also apologized for being rude to us. It was her journalistic instincts that were kicking in. Give her a chance, please. Besides, she is the only one who understands my theories when I explain them."

Maddy cocked her head to the side, "Fine Ange, but just remember, I don't like her, but I'll respect her because she's your so-called friend."

"That is all I ask."  
A loud, urgent knocking came at the door.

"Angela! Somebody! Help!"

Maddy and Angela looked at each other and rushed to the door. Maddy got to it first and opened it.

"Wh-what happened?" Angela exclaimed in horror.

XXXX

Angela took out her healing rod and pointed it at the scar on Veronica's forehead. A light beam flowed out and gently moved across the scar. She turned it off and put it back in her pocket.

Moving to the table, she took out some bandages, soaked them in liquid and went back to Veronica to wrap her right arm.

"Ouchie!" yelled Veronica as Angela tightened the bandage.

"Well, it would not have hurt so much if you had transformed or, better yet, called for help," Angela replied.

Veronica poked at her new bandages as she stood it from the chair, "Wasn't it easy to do anything..."

Vivicka was lying on the bed. There was no movement from her since they had gotten her into the house. She looked practically dead. Angela went to the bedside and felt Vivicka's forehead. It was burning hot.

"Veronica, could you recount what happened to you?"

Before responding, she looked out the window and then back at Angela, "Miss Tencho, she... she..."

Angela waited patiently.

Dropping to a whisper, she finished, "Died."

Angela stood in shock, "Died? But, how?"

She wished she hadn't asked. It was disturbing for them to live it all over again. However, they had to face it sometime.

"Zompires," Vivicka uttered.

Angela and Veronica stared at her. Vivicka's eyes were open and they stared at the ceiling.

"Uh... okay. What're zompires?" Annie asked as she walked in the room with more bandages.

Angela motioned them to step away from the bed.

"What's going on?" Annie asked. She was confused as ever.

"Please, Veronica, explain what happened."

"Alright, we were attacked by these zompire things. I beat one up. His name was... Azure, I think. I dunno, he was real freakish looking, looked like he stepped out of a movie or something. Then, Miss Tencho turned into one and almost got Viv," Veronica said as she walked back over to the bed.

Vivicka's body started to stir and move violently. Angela grabbed the liquid she used to soak the bandages and sprinkled some on Vivicka. It burned her skin and a faint smoke surfaced.

"What the heck's in that bottle?" shouted Veronica.

"Well, it is a special liquid used for healing from the Holy Shrine of Sagittarius," Angela replied as she took out her healing rod.

"Oh no, oh no... Miss Tencho! Miss Tencho got her didn't she?" Veronica said hysterically.

Annie tried to calm her down, "What are you talking about? Viv probably has some allergies to that... water?"

She didn't help much.

"Is she dead, Angela?" Veronica asked.

Vivicka's eyes were closed. Her hair was damp. Sweat speckled her face. She was a shade paler than before the water sprinkle.

Annie placed her hand on Veronica's shoulder. She waited for Angela to respond. After checking Vivicka's pulse and using the healing rod to scan her vital signs, she smiled.

"Vivicka is just sleeping. Her energy is slightly depleted, but other than that, she will recover."

Veronica nodded.

"So, what do we do now?" Annie asked.

Angela pondered for a moment. They waited for her to say something, anything.

"The best we could do now is research."

"What?" Annie and Veronica exclaimed at the same time.

"Research."

"Why don't we just go back to school and beat the livin' daylights outta everyone?" Veronica said eagerly.

"Or better yet, why don't we just beat the whole town up?" Annie sarcastically replied.

"All we can do is research about these zompires."

"But, isn't there something better to do? I mean, Veronica's idea wasn't half bad... now that I think about it," Annie said.

"Let us go to the compwall," Angela said as she went over to a computer-like device built into the wall. She began to type away.

Annie and Veronica stood behind her.

"Umm... how is exactly are you going to research something like zompires? It's like from a horror flick," Annie said as she looked at the monitor.

A beep came from the compwall.

"That is odd..." Angela whispered.

"What?" Annie and Veronica exclaimed at the same time again.

"We gotta stop doing that," Annie said.

As Angela was about to explain what puzzled her, Maddy walked in and held bundles of bandages in her arms. She plopped them down on a chair and looked around.

"Here ya go! The stuff you told me to get," Maddy said and spotted Vivicka, "Poor gal. Why does she look sick? I thought she just had some scratches and bruises."

"No, it's more like her teacher turned into some zombie-slash-vampire thing and bit her and now this," Annie answered.

Maddy nodded in bewilderment and pretended to understand. She decided to join the rest and stand around the compwall. Maybe she could get some comprehensible information from Angela.

"C'mon, what's odd?" Veronica prodded Angela.

"I can access the Zodiac Database."

Before Annie and Veronica could say anything, Maddy blurted out, "_The _Database? Our Database? Doesn't that mean we could contact home?!"

Angela shook her head, "Unfortunately, this is not an updated version of the Zodiac Database. You see, all our research files and reports get processed and incorporated into the Database but I do not see any of our reports from the past year coming up."

"So how are we able to see this?"

"The compwall is detecting an intermediate signal... usually, we connect straight to the source but for a whole year, we have not been able to get a strong enough connection. Somehow, this midpoint caught our signal and is redirecting it."

"Wait, where is this midpoint?" Annie asked.

Angela continued to type, "It is coming from... the moon."

"There ain't nothing up there but rocks and broken buildings!" Veronica said.

"They're called ruins," Maddy corrected. "It's supposedly part of some mythological Moon Kingdom. Earthlings seem to love the story."

Suddenly, they heard a low growl coming from the bed. The four turned their heads slowly toward the sound. Vivicka stirred. She stopped moving and began to breathe normally.

"Alright, forget about the 'roons. Let's focus on this," Veronica said as she pointed at her bedridden cousin.

"Okay! We don't want the little zombie girl to eat our brains so get rolling, Ange," Annie demanded.

"Don't worry, the little zombie girl won't be up in a while," Maddy said. A soft snoring resonated from the sleeping girl.

Angela searched the database for anything about zompires. A click came from the compwall.

"Here it is," Angela said. "It reads:

_Zompires- A breed of half zombie-half vampires; Once bitten by a zompire, one is automatically turned into the mindless creature, contributing to the vampire portion of their names. Once a zompire draws blood from a victim, the victim is also turned. However, it takes forty-eight hours for the victim to be fully turned as the poison takes slower to spread throughout the body._"

Veronica pointed at the monitor excitedly, "Look! Look! It says something about that jerk that attacked me!"

_Zompires are mindless creatures. They are lead by a 'pure zompire' who has the ability to control their victims, contributing to the zombie portion of their names. There are currently only four chronicled 'pure zompires': Azure, Cardinal, Jade, and Shadow. The only known way to return a turned zompire back to normal is to defeat the 'pure zompire' responsible for the turning. Note: Holy water may have an effect on these creatures._

"Bingo! We could formulate a plan now," Angela exclaimed.

"Bingo? Who uses 'bingo'?" Annie said in disgust.

"Who cares! We just gotta kill this zompire-dude-thing and everyone's back to normal," Maddy shouted.

Veronica motioned them to keep the volume down.

"We will discuss this as soon as possible. However, for now, Maddy and Annie, please go downstairs and prepare food. Veronica, wash up. I have to take care of Vivicka," Angela said as the three marched out of the room.

Angela sat by Vivicka's bed. Suddenly, Vivicka sat up and cocked her head back and forth.

"Ow..." she muttered as she laid back down. "What happened?"

Angela couldn't help but notice no bite marks on her neck.

"Do not try to move. Let me bandage you up," Angela said.

She took soaked bandages and wrapped it around Vivicka's forehead. Vivicka tried getting up again but pain shot through her legs.

"Can you tell me what zompires are, Angela?"

Angela recounted what they found out on the compwall.

"Angela, do you think we can defeat Azure before I become a complete zompire?"

"Well, how do you know you will become one? I do not see any scars on your neck."

"I think Miss Tencho got me. She got me by scratching my leg with her tainted nails," Vivicka whispered. They both looked at her bandaged leg.

"Do not you worry," Angela said as she got up. "Tomorrow, the four of us will go to school and straighten everything out. I am certain that not everyone was turned yet... You, on the other hand, must stay home to get some rest."

"But I don't need rest."

"Yes you do. Now, do not argue. Sleep. I have to get the rest of my healing water."

XXXX

Meanwhile, in the darkness of a cave, a single candle glowed in the center of a table. Two figures sat across from each other. The sound of a cascading waterfall was barely audible.

"What do you get out of it, love?" the pale man asked.

The burgundy haired woman who sat across from him, rolled her eyes at the word 'love'. He had the annoying habit of adding this at the end of his sentences. He smiled at her reaction as he adjusted his cloak, which hung to the ground. His clothes looked ancient but still in good condition. His arms rested on the table as his fingers tapped lightly on the table's black material.

"For once, could you avoid being so irritating? I didn't wake you up for that. Besides, I have Spikey Crow to do that."

"Oh right, your pseudo-siblings. How are they? I've only seen one so far," he replied and added with a smirk, "Love."

"Listen Azure, I woke you up so I could get those pesky Star Soldiers or whatever they are," she angrily said.

"Patience. I will amass my army of the damned and you will get your five humans. I don't see why you can't do it yourself."

Levita thought back to her last encounter with the Star Buds. She almost got her head barbequed by a flaming arrow. She had to get someone else to do her bidding. Thus, she called upon the dead.

"Don't act so tough. You were knocked out by a mere girl," she said as she leaned back on the chair.

Azure scowled, "It won't happen again."

"Just get me the five and you're free to do whatever you want with those humans. Burn 'em for all I care."

"They're not that bad. I mean, they're awfully good zombies. You look like you were human once, weren't you?"

"No!" she said as she slammed her fist on the table. "Never! I hate this place and I hate those humans. Once I get those five, I'll be able to free myself and the rest of us."

The zompire raised his eyebrows at her outburst.

"Oh, in that case, care to join me, love?"

"No!" she said as she got up to leave. "And if you say love one more time, I'll put you back to sleep permanently."

XXXX

Vivicka looked at the time. She tried to get out of bed but fell back down again. Instead, she began to yell.

"Isn't it Thursday? And aren't we late for school?"

Veronica literally rolled out of bed and struggled to escape her blanket as she stood up. She looked around groggily and yawned.

"Viv. Shuttup."

She was about to get back into bed when Maddy and Annie popped into the room.

"Hey! Ready to kill Azure?" Maddy cheerfully said, not even noticing how odd it sounded.

"That's right! So get up and get ready!" Annie added.

They vanished just as abruptly as they had appeared. Veronica got ready for school as Vivicka struggled to get out of bed.

"Hey, stop squirming you little runt," Veronica said. "Angela said that you hafta stay home. She's worried you might turn into a sharp-toothed monkey on us."

Veronica was surprised that Vivicka wasn't protesting. She just shrugged and went back to sleep. In the meantime, the other four rushed to school. Little did they know that Vivicka had gathered her energy and secretly followed them.

XXXX

"Looks fine to me," Annie said as she looked up at the school buildings.

The four were standing on the sidewalk, each had a small bottle of healing liquid in their pockets. Their plan was to save as many people as they could while flicking water on the mindless dead ones.

"Did I forget to mention that once you step in the front quad, it turns into a hell hole?" Veronica said.

All four took a deep breath and stepped off the sidewalk, venturing into the quad. Surprisingly, everything was normal. Some teachers were walking around. Students were running to class. They didn't spot any zompires amongst them or anyone looking slightly suspicious.

"Oh no!" Angela said.

They looked at her anxiously. She might have spotted something.

"My first tardy!"

"Uh... hello? Aren't the teachers zompires?" Annie shouted, a little too loudly.

"That means we can kick their butts and we won't get detention!" Maddy said happily.

Angela shook her head reprovingly, "Be careful. Transform when you have to but more importantly, call for help when you need it."

Veronica nodded and ran to class while the other three walked to their homeroom. When they were gone, Vivicka snuck into the building. She made sure Veronica went up to her class before embarking into the halls.

Once she spotted her classroom, she closed her eyes and remembered Miss Tencho's lifeless body. Blocking the image from her mind, she stepped into the class, expecting a substitute teacher.

"Miss Tencho?!"

"Well Vivicka, aren't we late today?" she replied with a smile.

Vivicka gave her a small smile and walked nervously to her seat. Miss Tencho started her lesson.

"Vivicka, what do you get when Miss Tencho scratches you on the leg? Answer is, you get a zompire," Miss Tencho said.

Suddenly, she grew fangs and turned pale. The whole class looked at Vivicka and they too turned pale and bloody.

"Help me!" Vivicka screamed.

End: Part II of Episode II


	4. Monsters Galore and More, Part III

Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. Also, I decided to take someone's advice and broke these chapters up to make them shorter. It's easier for the reader and for myself.

* * *

Episode II; Part III: Monsters Galore and More

Special Halloween Edition

* * *

The three stepped into the room. There was a brief moment of tension, but it soon faded as they realized that everything in the classroom was normal. Maddy and Annie took their usual seats in the back. Angela decided to follow them this time and passed over her seat near the front.

As Angela observed the students and the teacher, who began the lesson, Maddy and Annie chatted about a new movie. The mere fact that zompires were invading their school didn't seem to bother them.

Angela began to shift her attention back to the lesson at hand. Nothing seemed abnormal until, out of nowhere, the class heard a scream.

"Excellent! We've welcomed back a friend!" said the teacher.

He changed into a zompire and so did a few other students. Angela jumped up from her seat and shouted for the rest of the students to get out of the room to a safer place. Meanwhile, Maddy and Annie charged at the zompire students.

"Thanks for interfering with our conversation, jerk!" Annie yelled as a pale classmate tried to grab her. She managed to evade him and knee him in the stomach.

Maddy, on the other hand, tackled the teacher down. She grabbed a pencil from the desk and was about to stab him.

"Wait! They're still humans!" Angela cried out to her as she got the last normal student out of the room.

Instead of stabbing the teacher to death, Maddy landed a powerful punch on him and thankfully, knocked him out. She was surprised at her own strength. She glanced over at Annie, who rammed her head against the jaw of a zompire who had her in a head lock, and then at Angela, who was already at the door.

"Ange! What now?" Maddy said as she dodged more and more zompires.

"Come! We must get ourselves to safety!" Angela replied.

"C'mon bull head!" Maddy said to Annie as they both got to the door by skillfully evading the oncoming zompires.

The three were now at the door and the small group of frightened students was waiting in the hall for them.

"There's no time! Let's get them outta here," Annie said.

Angela turned to the group, "Follow us. We must escape the school."

The students nodded as they began to run down the hall. Maddy was trailing the group. She looked behind her and saw a hall full of zompires coming after them. Two short figures were charging through the zompire crowd.

"I-It's Veronica!" Maddy yelled, "And Vivicka's right behind her!"

Soon, the two girls caught up to Maddy and put a considerable distance between themselves and the mass of zompires.

Angela and Annie led the students to the base of the stairs.

"Alright, we've gotta find the other students who aren't... crazy," Annie said to them. "You people hafta get the hell outta here and alert somebody."

One of the guys wearing shades shouted out, "We can't leave you guys in danger! Let us help."

"Listen, you will be helping by keeping yourself and the rest of the group safe. Please, take charge and lead them to safety," Angela said to him.

He nodded, "I will."

Annie handed him a bottle of holy water, "Take this and sprinkle some on the zomp—not normal people and you'll be fine. We'll come after you when we're sure that nobody's left behind. There's an exit downstairs."

He nodded again and ran down the stairs. The small group of people consisting of four girls and five guys hurried behind him.

Maddy, Veronica, and Vivicka caught up to Annie and Angela.

"I thought you were at home," Angela sternly said to Vivicka.

"I can't miss a day of school... Even if my teacher is a zompire," Vivicka whined.

Before Angela could continue to scold her, Maddy urgently said, "I think you should save it for another time because it looks like they're coming."

Indeed they were. The zompires were making their way down the hall and were coming closer.

"Right," Angela replied.

They rushed up the stairs. As they were mid-way up the staircase, a crowd of zompires flooded down toward them. They had burst out the door the girls were heading for.

"Cripes!" Veronica exclaimed as they stopped and evaluated their situation.

"Okay, go back down," Maddy said. As she turned around to head back down the stairs, she heard the groaning of the zompires that they were previously running from. "Okay, nevermind!"

Angela looked at Veronica and Vivicka, "How did you get through them before?"

"Whaz ya mean?" Veronica asked confused.

Vivicka pointed to her bandaged head, "This had something to do with it and Veronica's wrapped up right arm."

"Right. Go do it again."

"Sure..."

"Alright! Charging through more zompires... I like it!" Veronica yelled as she charged down the stairs.

Vivicka ran after her. Her head was tilted forward, ready to go through the crowd of zompires.

"What are they doing?! Ange, you can't just let them do that!" Annie said.

"It's working! Let's go before we lose them!" Maddy said as she ran down the stairs.

Angela and Annie did the same and soon they were running past zompires who were backed up against the walls. Obviously, they had a run in with Veronica's arm and Vivicka's head.

Veronica made it to the front doors where a zompire was standing in front of it. She grinned as she pressed her arm against the mindless student. It groaned in pain and fell back against the doors, which crashed open.

"Come on! If we make it to the sidewalk, we can escape!" Veronica said, as she jumped over the fallen zompire and out the door.

They all ran as fast they could to their freedom. The sidewalk was only a few more steps away when Vivicka fell to the ground.

"Viv!" Veronica yelled as ran to her cousin.

Vivicka was kneeling in the grass and she kept ramming her head into the ground, while scratching her bandages. Her eyes were shut closed and she growled in pain.

"Viv!" Veronica yelled again. "Stop it! We're getting out of here!"

She grabbed Vivicka's arms so she wouldn't scratch anymore. Vivicka slowly stopped struggling and opened her eyes.

"V-Ver? What's going on? Ow... my head..." she whispered.

Angela knelt down beside her, "Vivicka dear, I believe you are reacting to the purified water in the bandages."

"I was? I am?!"

"Yes. Do not worry though. You still have a lot of time before you completely turn. Let us get to safety before more zompires arrive."

Angela and Veronica helped Vivicka up as they stepped onto the sidewalk, where Maddy and Annie anxiously waited.

"Okay, we've ditched school, now what? And how did you two twerps get through that crowd of freaks?" Annie asked.

"Very easily Annieboy. It's these holy water wraps," Veronica replied while showing off her bandaged right arm.

"Oh I see! You're like zompire repellant!" Maddy said as she patted Veronica's head.

"Repel your hand before I bite it off," Veronica snapped.

"So, anyway, what're we doing Ange?" Maddy cheerfully said as she patted Veronica's head one last time.

"Tomorrow is the last day for me to stay human! We have to defeat this Azure guy," Vivicka shouted. She had to lean on Veronica for support.

"We should gather enough holy water to fend off everyone and then move to kill Azure, wherever he is. Agreed?" Angela said.

"What about the normals stuck in the school? We can't just leave them!" said Annie.

"Well, they're technically not fully dead when they're turned right? And they haven't hurt anyone out of school yet right? So, why not just leave them all in one place so we can go back and 'holify' them all at the same time," Maddy commented.

Annie, Veronica, and Vivicka stared at her blankly.

Angela, on the other hand, nodded her head, "I actually understand your logic Maddy."

Annie turned to her, "Wait, I'm the one who usual says stupid things, not that I'm saying that I do say stupid things, but doesn't her reasoning seem a bit... callous?!"

"It is the only thing we can do right now. We need to acquire more supplies. Until then can we hope to rescue anyone at all."

"Fine, where can we get holy water?" Annie asked with a sigh.

"A church!" the other four replied.

"Oh, yeah!"

"Maddy and Annie, get all the spray bottles and containers you can find. The girls and I will obtain the holy water."

Angela, Veronica, and Vivicka called a hover-taxi while Maddy and Annie dashed to the mansion to empty out bottles and search for their water guns.

XXXXX

On top of the biology building stood the youngest pure-zompire alive. Azure looked down to see a group of five girls conversing. One was leaning on another. He smiled to himself.

"So, they think they can get away? I dun't think so. What about you, love?" Azure said as he turned away to face Levita, who was standing at the center of the roof.

"What are you doing? You can't just let people escape! And you say 'love' one more time and I'll knock your teeth out," she said as walked to the edge of the building and joined Azure in looking down at the group.

"Look at them. It's so bloody amusing. That's why I do it."

"So, is this the first group to escape at least?"

"Oh, no! There was a group before them of about ten or eleven kids. That was fun, love. You should have seen them whimpering and crying pitifully."

Levita clenched her fist and tried to remind herself why she bothered to awaken this moron.

Suppressing her anger, she asked, "Have any of the Senshi brats appeared yet?"

Azure cocked his head to the side, "No, actually. Scared to death I suppose. Who knows, maybe they've turned and I didn't even know it. Now, wouldn't that be fascinating, love?"

Levita glared at him, "It wouldn't be that easy. I'll be leaving now. Prolonged exposure to idiocy tends to make me violent. Get me what I want before tomorrow night or you know where you'll be going."

"Of course, love," Azure said smugly.

"Good."

Levita disappeared in a blaze of blue light.

"Now, what do we have here? Splitting up, are we?" Azure said as he observed the group breaking up and running in opposite directions. "That woman doesn't know what she's missing."

XXXXX

"Wow! Look at those wooden stakes!" Veronica said. She and Vivicka ran to check them out.

"Not to mention that they are in the trash can with leftover Chinese food," Angela mumbled. "Come on, we should do this quickly."

Angela had to drag the girls away from the trash can and into the church. Veronica and Vivicka were sanding their stakes when they entered.

"Where did you get the sand paper?" Angela asked.

"In the trash box," replied Vivicka.

Angela chose not to question this as she began to look around the church. Vivicka and Veronica stood by the doors splashing holy water on their stakes.

"Vivicka! Veronica! Cease, please!" Angela whispered.

"Sorry, Angela, but we need to boost the effectiveness of our weapons!" Vivicka said.

Veronica continued to eagerly splash her stake. Suddenly, Angela remembered that they did not bring anything to store the holy water.

"Well... where can we put the holy water since Maddy and Annie are getting the bottles?"

"Why don't we just take that barrel of holy water in the priest's room?" Veronica suggested.

"No, that would be wrong," before Angela could finish her lecture on stealing, she saw Veronica and Vivicka carrying two casks of holy water out the church doors.

"Hey! Get back here!" shouted a priest.

Angela dashed outside and called for a cab. She whistled for Veronica and Vivicka to get in.

When they were inside the hover-taxi, Angela looked at the two girls, "Why did you steal it? We could have gotten it by some other means."

"We really need it though! It's for a special cause so it makes stealing okay," Veronica tried to explain.

The cab stopped in front of the mansion. Angela sighed and got out while Veronica and Vivicka almost tumbled out of the door because they were hugging their casks.

"Come come," Angela said as the two girls rushed to the door and unfortunately, Maddy was the one who opened it. She was bombarded with the various retellings of the two girls' adventure.

"Okay, okay! Silent time okay? We're about to kick some zompire butt and you guys are just a little too chippery for me," Maddy said as she let them in.

"Wow, and I thought Maddy was always the excited, cheerful one," Vivicka said to Veronica.

"Yeah, well don't let one of the twosome gruesome fool you. They're always grumpy, especially the other one," Veronica replied.

Maddy ignored their comments, as did Annie who walked into the living room to greet them.

"Hey guys, get enough?"

"I do hope so," Angela responded.

"Heck yeah!" Veronica said as she tapped on both of the barrels of holy water. "Let's start fillin' up!"

They began to load their 'weapons' with the liquid. As they did this, they discussed Azure's whereabouts.

"Okay, so I'm just gonna ask the most plainest, obvious questions," Maddy said, "Where in the world did this guy come from and why is it invasion of the living-dead at our school?"

"Well, in response to the most obvious question number one, I will give obvious answer number one: he is probably involved with the Sinistar Warriors," Angela replied.

"Uh... who?" Veronica asked absently.

"Y'know! That weird burgundy haired lady that made me jump out the window! She's part of some Sinistar team," Vivicka said.

"I knew that..." Veronica muttered.

"What about question two?" Annie said as she filled up a bottle.

"The answer would have to involve us somehow," Angela said.

"Why us? Because we're Star Buds? They seemed to think we were Senshi or something last time, didn't they? I thought you told her to scram too, Ange!"

"It is not always that easy. With psychotic minds like hers, they never listen."

"I just can't stand that someone would do all this just to get _us_. I mean, we aren't that important. Besides, why not just capture us again like last time if they know where we are?"

"I believe they only know we attend Jujo High. Nothing more. As to why they want to destroy us, I have not a clue."

"Why can't it just be because it's October?" Maddy interjected.

"What?!" Annie and Veronica said at the same time.

"Boy, you guys better stop doing that," Vivicka said with a laugh.

"I mean, what if they're just doing this because it's this kind of time of year? It is the time for all the ghouls and ghosts to come out! Think about it people!"

"Riiight... Could I punch the brains back into her Angela?" Veronica said as she readied her fist.

"No, no. This has got to be more than just some Halloween incident," Angela said, ignoring Veronica's offer.

Vivicka was about to say something but she felt her throat become dry. Her hands began to shake and the bottle she held in her hand splashed out holy water. Some of it splashed onto her arm.

A hoarse, low shriek came from her.

"Viv!"

"Vivicka! Calm down! Maddy, Annie, get her to the couch. Veronica, get some hot tea."

They went about their jobs as Angela began to ponder about Vivicka's condition. The time was definitely getting closer. They needed to have a plan. They needed to save Vivicka. They needed to find Azure. More importantly, they needed to know what to do once they found him.

XXXXX

The next day...

"Is everyone armed and ready to rumble?" asked Annie. Everyone nodded except Vivicka, who coughed and lightly swaggered.

"You alright chump?" Veronica asked her.

"I think I'm getting weak because the zompire me is trying to take over. But... I'll be alright," Vivicka replied.

The five walked to school once again. This time, they were on the alert for any strange vibe that might appear. Each had a water gun in their bag, two spares, and a spray bottle.

"Let us go over the plan," Angela said, breaking the apprehensive silence.

"Not again!" Annie and Maddy complained.

"It's because she don't think you guys remembered the plan!" Veronica remarked with a grin.

Maddy and Annie sighed as Angela began to recite their strategy.

"When we get inside the school, we split into two groups. One group is in charge of finding Azure. The other group is in charge of rescuing any student, staff, or teacher from the clutches of these zompires."

"I thought we weren't going to care about the 'normals' because we're going to defeat Azure and they'd turn back to normal anyway!" Maddy said.

"Now that we have the right weapons, we can start saving those innocent bystanders!" Vivicka said, almost in a whisper.

"Good answer Vivicka."

Maddy and Annie glared at the sick little girl, but then felt bad for doing it because she looked so unhealthy.

"Remind me why we're not transforming and not kicking whatever life that's left out of those zompires? Because I think we can do it," Annie said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I knew you guys don't remember! It's 'cause we want the elemento of surprise," Veronia replied, "If we know that they want to kill us, we could just sneak up on them and y'know the rest..."

"What Veronica is trying to explain is that we could defeat the ones responsible for this without them knowing that we know what they know, it would be much more effective."

"Okay... Confusing, much?" Annie said.

"She's trying to say that it's better to surprise them than just barge in and waste a perfectly good attack!" Vivicka shouted and then quieted down, "I-I'm sorry... it's the zompire thing... honest!"

"I see the grumpy little zombat is starting to take over, or is it? Anyhow, let's go do it!" Maddy said cheerfully as the five got to the school grounds.

Like the day before, there was nothing unusual about the place. People walked around normally and there was no sign of zompires or such.

They walked into the school building, ready to fire at anything that moved. However, nobody was around. The halls were silent and empty.

"Heck! What's the fun without hackin' and slashin'," Veronica cried out furiously.

Then, out of the deep dark corners of the corridor, a loud growling emerged. They looked at each other. The growling sound became louder. Zompires poured down from the stairs, they came through the front door, and marched through the hall.

"Great! Open your big mouth, Ver!" Annie yelled.

"Shuddup!" snapped Veronica and she kicked an oncoming teacher back.

"Do not forget the plan!" Angela shouted above the noises of the zompires.

"Yeah, spray 'em!" Maddy exclaimed.

As she was saying, there were spraying... (Sorry, I had to rhyme there. I couldn't resist!)

Meanwhile, on the rooftop...

She touched her long burgundy hair and then looked at the pale man.

"You have until tonight to fulfill your mission. If you try anything like pitting your followers against me, I could wipe them out in one blast—without hesitation."

Azure smiled, "Of course you would, love. It's working out just as I hoped it would. In fact, the five are here as we speak and I will crush them."

"Azure, you shouldn't brag so much unless you have the strength to back it up, which I have yet to witness," Levita said with a wicked smile.

"I will not only crush them then. I'll bring them to you so you can _see_ me crush them!" he said and added with a wink, "I'll see you here again, love."

With that, he disappeared and left her standing alone on top of the building.

* * *

End: Part III of Episode II 


	5. Monsters Galore and More, The Conclusion

Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else. Yup. Also, I decided to take someone's advice and broke these chapters up to make them shorter. It's easier for the reader and for myself.

* * *

Episode II, Part IV: Monsters Galore and More

Special Halloween Edition

* * *

The four hooded men sat around the wooden table. The luminance of the candles provided the only light in the room. One of the men lifted his hand to speak.

"How could this happen? I thought we were in control of the situation."

"As did I. However, it exceeded our expectations," another answered him.

"What proof do you have that we aren't in control? This might be just another false alarm," said the third.

The fourth cleared his throat, "There was a theft in the church today."

A sharp intake of breath could be heard from the other three.

"A-A theft? In the church? How could this be? What has the world come to?"

"It was not the theft that was astonishing. It was the objects of the theft."

"What were they?" the first said.

"Two full casks of holy water," the fourth said slowly, emphasizing each word.

The first and second gasped.

The third nodded, "I see... what must be done."

XXXXX

The five girls walked into the school building. Just as they were expecting to find quiet, empty halls, a mass of zompires appeared from out of nowhere.

"Okie, so what's the plan now?" Veronica asked.

"Split up!" Angela commanded.

Without a thought, Veronica and Vivicka dashed off toward the stairs.

"H-Hey! You guys shouldn't go alone!" Maddy yelled.

It was too late though. The two had gone up the stairs and a wall of zompires blocked the other three from getting to them.

"Geez, we should've discussed who would go with who," Annie said.

"Point taken," Angela replied as she evaluated their situation.

The three were encircled by zompires...

XXXXX

Veronica and Vivicka ran up the stairs. Veronica was determined to find Azure and end his painful grip on her cousin. She didn't want her to suffer anymore.

They reached the door to the next floor. Before entering it, Vivicka sat down on one of the stairs and panted in exhaustion.

"Yo Viv, you okay?"

"Yeah... Just... need... to catch some air..." Vivicka replied. She rested her head on her knees and kept breathing hard.

"C'mon, I'll carry you," Veronica said, her anger rising, "and when I find Azure, I'm gonna beat him to a bloody pulp."

"W-wait!" Vivicka shouted, "I'm fine! Don't carry me! I have to get him back for what he did to Miss Tencho."

She got up. She looked like she was refreshed now and ready to go. Veronica saw the determination in her eyes. That would propel her. It always did and Veronica knew she couldn't do anything about it.

"Alright," Veronica nodded with a smile, "Let's get this bastard."

Vivicka raised her hand in the air and said, "Single Star Power!"

Veronica did the same and said, "Double Star Power!"

A white light engulfed them and they were transformed into Star Buds.

They opened the door.

XXXXX

"How much more of them are there?" Annie asked. "I hope not much because I don't think we've got enough holy water for 'em."

"Don't worry An-chan," Maddy said nervously, "We'll get out of this. We're Star Buds!"

The three were back to back in the center of a zompire circle. More zompires seemed to fill the halls as time went by. They didn't attack, initially. They stood there, groaned, and scared the wits out of Annie and Maddy.

Angela, on the other hand, was unphased. She was trying to devise a plan for their escape.

"Maddy and Annie, start splashing holy water on them. I believe our best option now is to get up those stairs," she said.

"Already on it," Annie said as she took out her squirt gun and sprayed a zompire point blank. It squealed in pain as it fell to the ground, covering its face with its hands.

That seemed to trigger something in the other zompires. They began to inch closer to the three and their moaning groans turned into angry growls.

"I don't think they like us leaving them out of the fun," Maddy said as she took out both her squirt guns, one in each hand, and looked at them all, "Come get some."

Annie grinned and Angela nodded in approval.

They splashed the zompires and even kicked some back. It seemed to be working as the wall of zompires began to fall to the ground.

"Hey, this is easier than I thought it would be," Annie said as she threw a bottle of holy water at a nearby zompire.

"Hey, you're right!" Maddy said.

"Somehow, I knew it would not be _this_ easy," Angela said in trepidation.

More zompires appeared. They were walking slowly towards the three. The pile of knocked out zompires surrounded them.

"I don't think they wanna play anymore. What now Angela?" Maddy asked.

"I'm running outta this stuff too! We're not going to last long," Annie added.

"Go to the stairs! Give me the rest of your supplies!" Angela demanded.

The two gave her their last bottle of holy water, but hesitated in leaving.

"Hurry! The zompires will close the gap again," Angela said.

"We can't leave you here by yourself Ange," Annie said.

"There is no time! Go!"

"But Ange!" Maddy protested.

"Go!"

The two saw she wasn't going to go back on her words and left to go up the stairs.

After they left, Angela looked at the ceiling of the halls. The school was equipped with a sprinkler system. She had the perfect idea of what to do.

"Sagittarius Power!" she yelled as a bright light surrounded her and she became Star Bud Sagittarius.

The bright light caused the zompires to pause for a few moments. She carried out her plan as the zompires shook out of their daze and continued to surround her.

XXXXX

Double Star Bud Virgo got to the staircase of the next floor. They have traveled four flights already and there didn't seem to be any zompires coming after them. Maybe they had gone the wrong way, she thought.

"Yo, Viv! C'mon!"

Single Star Bud Virgo caught up to her cousin and they ran up the next stairs.

"Where is he?"

"I dunno Viv, but we'll find him."

XXXXX

"What whacko would think of doing this? What did we ever do to them?" Annie complained.

"Stop!" Maddy said as she stopped running up the stairs.

"What?"

"There are no zompires around. Why is that?"

Annie shrugged, "Maybe they're all on the first floor. It seems that way because they just kept poppin' outta nowhere down there."

Maddy was unconvinced but she remembered that they had to go find Veronica and Vivicka.

"I was just wondering. That's all. Let's go get those munchkins."

"We better change right now. We've gotta be ready for anything. Plus, we don't have anymore holy spray."

With that, they transformed into Star Bud Leo and Star Bud Aquarius.

XXXXX

Azure was still on the rooftop. He noticed a change in something. He had concentrated all of his zompires on the first floor because he wanted to snatch the Star Buds before they could get anywhere. However, there was something wrong. There were two strong energy forces heading towards the rooftop. Two more, though further away, were heading upwards as well. One was still on the first floor. He hadn't seen anyone else come in besides those five girls...

"Aha! Brilliant, I have some information for dear Levita ... maybe she'll lighten up..."

He could feel the presence of the two beings come closer.

"I see one of them is on the edge of change. Interesting..."

Azure vanished from the rooftop.

XXXXX

Double Star Bud Virgo and Single Star Bud Virgo stood in the hallway. They had gone up three more floors, but they still couldn't find what they were looking for. Suddenly, Single Virgo felt a shock go up her spine and it got worse when it reached her head.

"Itai!" she cried. (Itai means ouch)

"Viv!"

"Why does it hurt so much?" Single Virgo said as she sat on the ground with her shoulders slumped and head down.

"Hey, snap out of it! We gotta keep going!"

"Y-you go on without me Ver... I think... I've gotta rest... here..."

She could feel a coldness take over her. Something was trying to get a hold of her and she couldn't stop it.

"No Viv," Double Virgo said quietly. She clenched her fists and stared hard at the wall. "I'm not going to leave you."

The halls were quiet.

Single Star Bud Virgo looked up. Her sight was hazy. Everything had a fuzzy outline. The dimness and lack of light was overwhelming.

"Did you hear me? I'm not gonna leave you! I made a promise to mom that I'd look after you!" she said louder.

Single Virgo's eyes widened as a solid outline appeared. It was Double Virgo. Her arm was stretched out in front of her and in her hand, she held her wind spear. The spear point was pointing straight up to the ceiling and the bottom of the spear was right next to Single Virgo's hand, almost calling out for her to grab it.

For some reason, she began to remember those times when they were living on the streets. Veronica would always find a way to get them food or shelter, no matter what the cost. They had pulled through some pretty tough times on Earth and they always did it together.

Single Virgo saw her cousin's face. Her eyes were glowing and she could see the fiery determination in them. They were the clearest she had ever saw them.

"Viv, I will never leave you behind. You know that. Take the spear, or we'll both stay here until that damn bastard and his creeps find us. I'm fine with either choice!"

Single Virgo smiled weakly and her shaking hand slowly moved to grip the spear.

"Thanks Ver," she said as she forced herself up, utilizing the spear for help.

"No prob."

As they were about to get to the stairs, they both felt a strange vibe. Turning around, they saw him. It was the pure-zompire they were so adamant in finding.

"I didn't want to intrude on the moment, but I guess this would be the best time seeing as you were all emotional and such," Azure said as he walked toward them. "I do believe that my 'creeps' are now converging on one of your friends. Oh dear, I don't think she can take them on alone."

"You! You'll get the beating of your life today!" Double Virgo shouted. "Don't come any closer or I'll kick your ass!"

Azure stopped walking, "You sure do have a mouth on you. Aren't you the least bit worried about your friends?"

"What did you do to them?" Single Virgo asked.

"Well, it seems one is still on the first floor with a full force of my minions. Two are... moving upward. They won't get very far. You see, I've got some of my minions waiting for them too."

"That can't be! We didn't see any on the way up!" Double Virgo exclaimed.

"I can easily remedy that. All I have to do is teleport a bunch of them to the floor that your friends are on. It'll be so much tidier after that first one is gone on the first floor."

"No... they must have some sort of plan," Single Virgo whispered.

"They do, don't worry," Double Virgo said to her.

"If it comforts you to know, I do believe the solitary soldier is the one named Angela."

The two young Star Buds gasped. He knew their identities.

"That's right, I knew who you all were the moment you stepped in here. Did you think I was bloody stupid?"

"Of course we thought you were stupid!" Double Virgo yelled.

"A bit hasty, don't you think? I'll meet you two on top of the building, if you can make it. It'll be so anticlimactic. Lovely, just lovely," Azure said as he disappeared.

"Angela!" Single Virgo said, "She's alone! We've got to help her, Ver!"

They got to the door that led to the staircase. However, it wouldn't budge open.

"What? Lemme try to kick it down," Double Virgo said.

She tried a kick but it didn't do anything to the door.

"What about Annie and Maddy? We should contact them and tell them to go back and save Angela."

"Good idea."

They both looked at their communicator watches. Single Virgo tried to contact Star Bud Aquarius while Double Virgo tried Star Bud Leo. They both got busy signals. Their receptions were being blocked.

"What now?" Single Virgo said worriedly.

A bell sounded and the elevator doors opened.

"I guess, that's the only way now," Double Virgo said.

Images of Miss Tencho's mangled body flashed in Single Virgo's mind. The blood sprayed everywhere and she could almost smell it again. The shock began to run up her spine again, but Double Virgo's hand on her head stopped it. She ruffled Single Virgo's hair a bit.

"Yo, let's make it to the rooftop to save our buds."

Single Virgo nodded and they stepped into the elevator.

The doors closed.

XXXXX

Star Bud Leo got to the door first and turned the knob. The door didn't open. She tried again, but it wouldn't move.

"Ma-chan! We've got a problem! The door isn't cooperating!"

"Did you ask it nicely?"

She looked at Star Bud Aquarius, "Mad, I always ask nicely. Besides, this door is a serious problem here. Pick the lock with your sword!"

Aquarius laughed at the suggestion, "Use my magnificently unique and powerful sword as a tool for that lowly task? Are you crazy? Move aside and lemme take a whack at it."

"Be my guest."

Leo stepped away as Aquarius raised her sword and struck down at the knob. It broke off the door and clattered on the ground. Aquarius smiled as she gently nudged at the door. It didn't budge. She nudged the door again, this time with more force. It still didn't budge.

"What is up with this?"

"I think we're officially screwed now," Leo said.

"Nonsense An-chan. We just gotta bust the door down with your Reflection Beam."

"No, I mean turn around see what just popped in to greet us."

Aquarius turned around and saw a crowd of zompires at the end of the hall, heading toward them.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right."

"Good. I'm glad the last thing I know before I die is that I'm right," Leo said, holding her mirror staff in front of her.

"Right at the wrong times and wrong at the wrong times. How can you beat that?" Aquarius said with a smile as she brandished her sword.

The zompires were actually moving faster than they were on the first floor. It seemed they were now programmed to do something besides mindless wandering and blocking off people.

"Wait, we can't actually kill them," Leo said.

"Then, what do we do?"

"What floor are we on?"

There was a large glass window next to them.

"Jump?!" Aquarius exclaimed.

"I asked what floor we were on! Not jump! But since you suggested it, you jump first!"

"Well, if we have our barriers on right before we hit the ground, I'm sure it won't hurt as much," Aquarius said as she edged closer to the window.

"Good thinking. Ange actually taught you something?"

"Yeah, I'm going now!" Aquarius said as she took her sword and thrust it at the window. The glass shattered and created an opening big enough for her to dive out of. She jumped out and Leo followed her.

As the two were falling, they saw the zompires congregate at the broken window and then vanish.

They were freefalling to the ground.

XXXXX

Azure was surprised at first but then grinned.

"So, they chose death over life in my kingdom. They truly are interesting specimens. I should check up on the one on the first floor..."

XXXXX

The circle of zompires surrounding Star Bud Sagittarius inched closer and closer to her. She was, literally, two feet away from death.

She wasn't afraid, however. She looked up at the sprinklers on the ceilings. She had attached the last three holy water bottles to the sprinkler right above her. She rigged it to burst open when the sprinkler went off. The holy water would get an extra boost of water when the sprinklers were activated.

Sagittarius knew exactly how she would set them off.

Her bow and arrow materialized in her hands. The zompires only need to get within another foot and the water could reach all of them.

"Chop, chop now!" she taunted them, "I had lab experiments grow faster that you!"

They came closer and closer.

"Fire arrow!" she said as the tip of the arrow ignited in flames.

She fired the arrow next to the sprinkler, just close enough to signal it to turn on.

The zompires didn't take notice of Sagittarius's action until the water started to pour down on them.

"Ha! Now I have more holy water than ever!" she said triumphantly as the zompires began to moan again.

Sagittarius was about to retrieve her arrow when she noticed that the zompires were still coming closer. The water kept raining down on them.

"My calculations... were wrong?"

They crept closer. A zompire grabbed her arm and another grabbed her head. She could see the fangs of the zompire that prepared to bite her.

Closing her eyes, she waited for it. She could feel the water soaking into her hair and splash over her skin.

XXXXX

"Amusing! But holy water is the purest of waters. Mixed with any other water, it becomes diluted and useless. I'll have another one, eh?" Azure said to himself.

He turned around to the elevator. The light flickered and the door opened. The two Star Buds stepped out.

"Welcome!"

"Cut the greetings. We're here to fight you!" Double Star Bud Virgo said as she pointed her spear at him.

Single Star Bud Virgo had her thunder staff ready to go.

"Fine. If you wish it that way, but I must inform you that you were brought here to be taken away by someone else."

"Cram that cape in your mouth! We ain't gonna be taken away by nobody!"

"That's right!" Single Virgo yelled.

"Dear Levita will be happy with these young ones."

"Levita?" Single Virgo said.

"That's right. Now let's get going, shall we?"

He raised his hand up, palm facing at them.

"Join me now."

Single Virgo fell to her knees. She could feel the shock again.

"V-Ver... It hurts..."

Double Virgo bent down to her cousin, "Viv, it'll be alright! We'll defeat this creep."

Single Virgo's sight began to blur and she collapsed onto the ground. Double Virgo stood up and looked at Azure. Her eyes were set ablaze.

"You bastard!" she yelled as she charged at him with her spear.

He laughed at her, "She'll be better off this way."

As she got closer to him, he flicked his wrist, as if he were flicking away a fly and Double Virgo was sent crashing to the ground.

"Arise!" he commanded.

"What the--," she said as she turned around and saw Single Virgo getting to her feet. Her eyes were closed and she was paler than ever.

"Viv! Fight it! Fight him!"

Single Virgo's eyes opened. They weren't their normal blue, but instead, a lifeless gray. She looked straight at Double Virgo and flashed her sharp fangs.

"You see, she's much stronger than she was before."

"Shut up!" Double Virgo yelled and charged at him again, "Go to hell!"

Azure's cold eyes stared at her as she ran at him. He remained motionless. As Double Virgo's spear shot out at him, she felt something zoom by her.

The sound of metal against metal rang through the air.

"Viv! What're you doing?"

Single Virgo had deflected Double Virgo's attack against Azure.

"She no longer responds to you, dear."

Double Virgo stumbled backwards. She couldn't believe this was happening. She couldn't hurt her cousin. She had to defeat Azure.

"Viv, don't do this! I know you can fight it!"

"Dear Vivicka, show her that you're no longer the bloody Star Bud you once were."

Single Virgo got into a fighting stance. Double Virgo was too horrified to respond. Single Virgo rushed at her and punched her. She still didn't respond. Single Virgo took her weapon and charged it up with lightning.

"You better do something," Azure said teasingly, "She doesn't look too happy to me."

Double Virgo saw the crackling, green energy come at her and she was blown backward, closer to the edge of the rooftop. The electrical shock pulsed through her body. She was paralyzed for the moment.

"Listen to me Viv! You're not like this! Come back!" Double Virgo said as she breathed heavily.

Single Virgo slowly walked up to her cousin. She grabbed Double Virgo's spear from her immobile hand and pointed it at her neck.

"I will show you that she is only a zompire now. She will kill you!" Azure declared.

"Bull!" Double Virgo cried out, "Vivicka is still in there somewhere and she ain't gonna kill me! I know she won't!"

There was a flash of light in Single Virgo's eyes but it soon dissipated.

Double Virgo felt her body coming back to normal. She would be able to move again. Single Virgo brought her arm back, preparing to jam the spear into Double Virgo's throat.

"No, Viv!" Double Virgo shouted as she gathered all her energy into grabbing Single Virgo's arm.

Single Virgo gasped in pain. Double Virgo saw that her arm was still bandaged and it still retained some holy water on it. The spear dematerialized as she held onto her arm tighter.

"Viv!" she yelled repeatedly.

Single Virgo, with her free arm, touched her forehead as she tried to sort out the two consciousnesses residing in her head.

"Kill her! Do as your master commands!" Azure shouted.

"V-Ver, you gotta get out of here. I don't know how long I can stay human."

Double Virgo said in anger, "Don't you dare tell me what to do Viv. I ain't leaving you and I know you're stronger than this! Fight it damn it!"

Single Virgo saw her cousin's eyes and the fiery determination in them again.

"I made a promise..." she remembered her cousin saying.

Those eyes were clear and she knew she had to fight. She had to.

"Get out!" she screamed.

Double Virgo released her grip. Single Virgo pressed her hands over her forehead. She was struggling to stand up straight. Azure was startled at this.

"Fight it Viv!"

Single Virgo stumbled away from her cousin and toward Azure.

He laughed once again, "I told you. The old Vivicka is no longer."

Her eyes were closed and her arms had fallen limply to her sides. She stood in front of Azure, as if to defend him.

Double Virgo frowned but realized what she had to do. She held her hand out and her spear appeared again.

"Fine," she whispered.

XXXXX

Star Bud Sagittarius waited for the fangs to puncture her skin. A loud crash caused the floor to tremble. The zompires were caught off guard. She took that time to kick away the zompire that was about to bite her.

She looked around for the cause of the noise and saw, to her amazement, a large red fire truck in the middle of the hall.

"You two!" she yelled, "What is going on?"

"Help is on the way!" Leo shouted back.

Star Bud Aquarius and Leo were hanging off the side of the fire truck. They held a hose in their hands and blasted it away at the zompires. A man in robes got out of the truck and assisted the two.

The zompires were all soaked in water, along with Sagittarius, but they all reacted violently and fell to the floor.

Sagittarius looked around and then at the newly arrived saviors.

"Well now, how in the world did you—"

"No time to explain. We got to get to the rooftop. We felt some serious vibes up there," Star Bud Aquarius said.

"Right."

"Hey padre," Leo said to the man in robes, "Let us borrow that nifty ladder, will ya?"

"Anything to help those who would stop the pure-zompire from domination," he replied.

"Thanks. C'mon guys, we can't let the two little ones have all the fun!"

"Hurry! This is no joking matter! They might be in serious danger," Sagittarius scolded them.

"Yeah, it's nice to know that saying thanks after we save your life is out of fashion," Leo said.

"Let's just go, huh?" Aquarius said as they prepared the ladder.

XXXXX

Azure began to laugh, louder and louder. Double Virgo glared at him. Single Virgo still stood in front of him.

"You see? She's gone," he said.

Single Virgo turned around and threw a lightning punch at him.

"Not yet!" she screamed as her fist connected with his jaw.

Azure, taken by surprise, cursed his carelessness. He grabbed Single Virgo's wrist and threw her at Double Virgo. She crashed into her and they were both on the ground again.

"I'm done playing," he said as he wiped the blood from his mouth, "Bloody hell..."

A blue force field generated around him. He walked up to them and stood over them. From his hands emerged a blue sphere of energy. He was ready to blast them off the rooftop.

That is, until a beam of light smashed into his barrier.

Azure turned and saw three Star Buds facing him. They stood on the ledge of the roof.

"Stop right there!" Star Bud Leo said.

"Hey guys! Get up!" Star Bud Aquarius yelled out to the two Virgos.

"Step away from them or else we will be forced to harm you!" Star Bud Sagittarius said, with her bow ready.

"You? Harm me? I don't think so dear," he said as he now aimed the blue energy sphere at the three, "Well, Levita has all of you in one big package now, though I'm really tempted to blast you all away... She better hurry."

"This guy's too cocky," Leo said, "What do we do to make him stop talking?"

"Triangle formation!" Sagittarius ordered.

Leo and Aquarius looked at her in surprise.

"Triangle formation!" Sagittarius repeated.

"Umm..." they both said while twiddling their thumbs, "What's that?"

Sagittarius almost fell off the ledge when she heard their response, "Are you telling me you forgot your training?"

"Enough of this!" Azure said in irritation, "I officially have no idea what Levita wants with you children, but I'll have some fun with you before she whisks you away."

"Levita again?" Aquarius exclaimed, "Why us?"

"I told you! I don't know why!" he replied angrily, "To hell with it... Demon Fury Blast!"

The blue energy sphere flew from his hands and charged at the three. They fled in different directions, however, the sphere split as well.

"Reflection Beam!" Leo yelled as a light beam emerged from her mirror staff and headed for the energy sphere that came at her.

The beam hit the sphere and it caused a huge explosion of light.

Taking Leo's lead, Sagittarius fired three fire arrows at the sphere and it too erupted in light. Aquarius sent a tidal wave of water at the last sphere and it flew back at Azure, but disintegrated when it met his barrier.

"Yikes, that's one horrific defense he's got," Aquarius said.

"That's not the end of it dear," Azure said as he readied two more energy spheres, "Let's see how you do with more blasts."

As he charged up again, he suddenly felt something impact the barrier. He looked behind him and saw a fist pressed up against it.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled, "Do you really think that could defeat me?"

Double Virgo grinned, "I didn't know holy water worked on you too."

She yelled in fury as she sent another powerful punch to the barrier. She kept her fist locked on the barrier and put all her weight into pressing against it. Blue sparks began to fly out at her.

Single Virgo appeared behind her and cheered her on.

"Good thinking Ver!" she said as she touched her forehead. It still had the bandages on it, just like Double Virgo's arm.

She took a couple of steps back and charged at the barrier, head first.

"Do not do it!" Sagittarius yelled.

Single Virgo's head made contact with the barrier and blue sparks started to come out as well.

"C'mon Viv, we can break through this barrier!"

Azure aimed the two energy spheres at the two, "Back away or die!"

The two Star Buds continued to press against the barrier. The blue sparks became brighter.

"Veronica! Vivicka! Stop, you'll kill youselves!" Leo yelled.

"Stop!" Sagittarius yelled as she shot an arrow at Azure.

The arrow hit the barrier and broke.

"It won't work!" Azure said angrily.

The blue energy spheres continued to rotate in his hands as he looked from the two Star Buds trying to break into his barrier and the other three, who stood poised to attack.

"I understand now!" Sagittarius said.

"Understand what Ange?" Aquarius asked.

"As long as he has his barrier up, nothing can penetrate it and nothing can come out of it!"

"You're right!" Leo said, "He hasn't fired at Ver or Viv yet because once he does, we can shoot him from this side!"

"Bingo!" Sagittarius said.

"Bingo? Who says bingo?" Aquarius said.

Azure growled in anger, "That may be right, but how long will these little ones last? This barrier is too strong to be broken."

"Like hell it is!" Double Virgo yelled as she continued to push against the barrier. Her bandages were starting to deteriorate and the blue sparks were starting to singe into her flesh.

Single Virgo let out a pierce scream as she rammed into the barrier again.

"S-should we stop them?" Aquarius said in horror.

"No matter what we do, they will not," Sagittarius replied.

"It is no use!" Azure said.

The blue sparks became an eerily bright white light and then subsided. The only thing left was the blue outline of the barrier. Cracks began to form under Double Virgo's fist. More cracks began to appear where Single Virgo's head crashed into.

"No..." Azure whispered.

The barrier began to shake and the two Star Buds pushed passed it. The barrier shattered like glass. Its blue shards flew everywhere and vanished into the air.

"Think again bucko," Double Virgo said as she yelled, "Holy Punch!"

"Sacred Headbutt!" Single Virgo yelled.

Azure was sent backwards, falling on his head. The impact of the attacks was too overpowering.

"Now!" Sagittarius yelled.

Aquarius made a swift downward motion with her sword. A wave of water came at Azure. Leo aimed her mirror at him and a beam shot out. Finally, Sagittarius shot five arrows out.

The triple combination attack fused together and formed one concentrated white beam with blue and red spirals around it.

Azure screamed in pain.

"Help me Levita!" he yelled out as the beam engulfed him.

Levita appeared on the rooftop.

"I knew you were too arrogant to pull of this job. What happened to crushing them?"

"Help me, love!"

"What use would that be?" she said, "You sicken me... I'll take my leave now and I'll get you Star Buds some other time."

She disappeared and Azure was no more.

Double Virgo helped her cousin up from the ground, "Way to use your head, monkey."

"Thanks Ver... Ow... It hurts... But at least I don't have that weird zompire part trying to take over. Oh, I hope I didn't hurt you too much when I attacked you..."

"Oh that? I was just acting! You know you can't beat me up, Viv! You're too short!"

Sagittarius hurried to Single Virgo and looked at her head, "I cannot believe your skull did not fracture. The healing rod could lessen the pain, but only rest could heal it completely. That means no school until you are fully back to health."

Single Virgo didn't protest this time. Her head wasn't going to allow it.

Aquarius and Leo shouted at them.

"Hey, let's get off the roof! The ladder's waiting for us!" Leo said.

"C'mon guys! It's fun!"

Sagittarius went down first and then Aquarius.

Before Single Virgo climbed down, she asked Leo, "How'd you get this ladder? How'd you get a firetruck?!"

"Some padre was heading here with it and he kept rambling about how there was a holy water theft in the church and that he was part of some zompire hunter society."

Single Virgo and Double Virgo looked at her and was about to crack up.

"What?"

"N-nothing," Single Virgo said as she climbed down.

The other two followed her.

The school was safe from the undead, for now

XXXXX

"Levita," Sinistogi said in the darkness, "You have failed me once again."

"I am sorry Master," Levita said as she bowed down to him.

A cold wind passed through the cave.

"Will I have to call on one of the other Sinistar Warriors?"

Levita, still bowing, clenched her fists. She didn't want the others involved. She knew she could save them by herself.

"No, Master. Though I have not captured the Star Buds, I have at least procured enough energy to keep this place running."

Sinistogi nodded, "You are correct in saying that. There was a lot of energy released when those humans transformed into zompires. Yes, this dwelling that resides in the depths of time requires much energy, but it is necessary to conceal ourselves."

"Will you grant me another chance, Master? I don't want the others to be pulled into this," Levita said.

"I know you so badly want your freedom and the freedom of your siblings, but you cannot do everything alone."

"Yes, I can," Levita thought to herself.

"Go now and execute your next plan."

"Yes, Master," Levita said as she disappeared into another part of the cave.

After she left, three figures stepped out of the darkness behind Sinistogi.

"Master, Levita is too unstable. She will kill all the humans before capturing the Star Buds. Let us help her," one said.

"She has too much pride. She will not accept the help of one of her subordinates," Sinistogi said. "I must attend to other matters now. I feel something approaching this planet."

He stepped into the darkness and vanished.

The other three Sinistar Warriors stood in silence.

"Why are we enslaved by him?"

"Don't talk of such insolence! He saved us from the humans!"

"Come now. Don't argue. Let's check up on Levita."

With that, the three also vanished.

XXXXX

"Well, it looks like another day saved by the Star Buds," Maddy said.

The five sat at a table at the McJujo's.

"Yeah, but it was tiring!" Annie said as she sipped on her drink.

Veronica patted Vivicka on the head, which caused her to wince, "We should have more fighting during school. It's funner than writing and thinking."

"I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy having my head almost split open by some zompire's barrier!" Vivicka said as she stole a french fry from Veronica's tray.

"I am still worried that Levita and the one she is working for will come back for us. We need to be more alert from now on," Angela said seriously.

"Come to think of it," Vivicka said, "Azure figured out our identities."

Veronica nodded in agreement.

"What?" Annie exclaimed. "Do you think he told her?"

"I cannot be sure, but remember, we are on the alert," Angela said.

"Hey Angela!" called a voice from afar.

"Oh no, that isn't..." Annie and Maddy said.

"Sofia! Come join us!" Angela said as she waved her over.

The other four shook their heads and motioned for Angela to stop. However, Sofia arrived at their table and sat down, squeezing in between Annie and Maddy.

"Hey gang! Sorry I didn't make our meeting, Angela. I was... sleeping on the ground of the school for some reason," she said as she grabbed a fry from Annie's tray, "Isn't that weird? Most of the school was like that. They blamed it on the fact that there was some chemical in the school's sprinkler system and it caused everyone to be knocked out."

"Really?" Angela asked.

"It's true!" Sofia replied.

The other four looked at each other blankly. Sofia and Angela looked at them, bewildered.

"What's gotten into them?"

"Oh, they are just zombies sometimes," Angela answered with a smile.

* * *

End: Part IV of Episode II 


	6. Special Act: Annie's Holiday

**Annie's Holiday**  
_Special Act_

_ A/N: Hey all! This is just a little filler episode about Annie's misadventures with Ver and Viv. I'll get back to the Star Buds and how they connect to Sailor Moon storyline as soon as I'm able. Until then, enjoy this lighthearted, whimsical piece. Happy Holidays!_

_

* * *

_

Annie Hansha yawned a hearty yawn as she got out of bed. She pulled the curtains aside to reveal what the day had in store for her. Sure enough, it was another cold winter day. The sky was downcast and there were no clouds around.

She sighed as she realized it would be a sweater-boots-and-gloves day. Personally, she liked wearing boots and winter clothes were always her forte. However, she felt confined sometimes by all the layers of clothing she had to pile on herself. She didn't feel like going out much today anyway.

Maybe she could just sit back in a nice comfy chair with a cup of hot cocoa in her hands and watch the holiday parade on the holo-tv. Yeah, she could definitely live with that.

"WAKE UP!!!"

Annie jumped at the sudden loud, irritating noise that came from across the hall. At that moment, she knew her plans of hot cocoa and holo-tv were going down the drain and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Nothing, and she stressed _nothing_, ever went as planned.

"Wake up sleepy-head! You said we could go ice skating today!!!" the little girl's voice said.

"Go away," another voice replied.

"I'll go away when you wake up!"

"Go away."

"I'll go away when you WAKE UP!"

Annie rolled her eyes and flopped back down on her bed. This was going to be a long annoying, loud conversation between the two cousins. It would only cease if one of two things happen: Veronica would actually wake up or—

"I said go away!"

POW! THUD!

Yup, that was the second option: Veronica would _make_ Vivicka go to sleep. Annie sighed for the second time this morning. Where were the other two older people in the house? They should be taking care of this!

Then, Annie realized that Maddy, the person she shared the room with and her best friend since the dawn of time, wasn't in the room at all.

"Mad?" she called out, "Mad? Could you go check on the little buggers?"

There was no reply.

"Ange!" she tried, "Ange!!!"

"Shuttup!" Veronica cried out grumpily. "They ain't here!"

Annie sat up. She thought for a moment.

"WHAT?!" she screamed.

A pillow came flying at her head and knocked her down.

"Shuttup!" said Veronica, standing in the doorway.

"You're awake!" Vivicka said as she bounced into the room. There was an obvious bump swelling up on her head.

"Go away," Veronica muttered.

Annie threw the pillow on the ground and got up, "You two, out! Lemme get dressed— "

"So you can take us ice skating!" Vivicka shouted.

"No, so I can spend the day at home. Besides, you two can look out for yourselves."

"I don't wanna go with just Ver. It's no fun! C'mon Auntie Anne!" Vivicka whined.

Veronica was just about sleeping standing up.

Annie sighed, for the third time. She hated when Viv called her Auntie Anne. It made her sound like a pretzel-maker. Yet, the little bugger looked really determined and she decided that it wouldn't be so bad to spend time with them.

She was wrong, extremely wrong. Once they stepped on that outdoor ice rink Veronica turned into a speed demon, knocking down anyone in her way and Vivicka sat down collecting the shaved pieces of ice to make snowballs to throw at people, especially the ones Veronica knocked down.

Annie had to rush over to people to apologize. The mother of one the children who got a mouth full of ice started to lecture Annie on ice-skating etiquette and the mother of another child started to yell at Annie not only for her hurt kid but for her divorce and unemployment too. Pretty soon, Annie just gave up and pretended she didn't know the two girls.

"Annie!" Vivicka yelled from across the ice rink, "Can you get us some hot chocolate?"

Annie, who yelled back to nobody in particular, replied, "Sure! I'll be right back!"

She was glad to get away from the two troublemakers for a while. Any excuse was a good excuse for her, even if she had to use her own money to buy drinks for the little devil children.

She walked along the street vendors in the town center. Finally, she got to a coffee stand that, thankfully, sold hot chocolate.

"Three cups please," Annie said as she got out her wallet.

The young man, about Annie's age, replied, "Nine dollars."

Annie was about to give him the money but stopped when she saw the drinks he was about to hand her. She looked at him incredulously.

"You're kidding me," she said, "I'm not paying nine dollars for cups that small. Give me regular sized cups at least! I know you rip off people, but not _that_ badly."

"Listen, you ordered it, now you have to pay for it."

"No way. I ordered three _cups_ of hot chocolate, not three _shots_ of hot chocolate."

"These aren't that small! These are standard cups!"

"Yeah, standard for little elves! Gimme what I ordered!"

"This is what you ordered," he said loudly, "Now pay me the money!"

He said it a little too loudly because people were beginning to stare from across the street.

He lowered his voice, "Ahem… Look, five dollars will do."

Annie smiled and handed him a five. She was glad to get rid of that five—there was a red mark across the top that really bothered her because she liked her money nice and clean. Yeah, she was feeling good. She took the paper tray of cups and walked a couple of feet away when she realized that she didn't grab any napkins. As she turned back to get napkins, she saw the young man taking money from the cash register. She gasped. That little thief, she thought. She felt like she had to do something. The nerve of that creep to overcharge her and then steal in broad daylight! Well, he did give her a discount, but that was beside the point. He was now labeled a crook.

"Hey you!" she yelled, pointing at him, "Stop right there! In the name of all that is just and fair in this world, put that money back where you found it! I will not tolerate stealing or cheating of any kind! For if trouble or wrongdoing is afoot, you can be sure Annie Hansha will be there to stop it in its tracks!"

She had to throw her name in there just in case some reporter was around, taking the story, in which case, her name would definitely appear in the 5 o'clock news. Who knows? She might even get in the newspaper! They better get a good shot of me, she thought.

People started to gather around the stand now, murmuring to each other who accused who of what. Annie smirked at the young man's scared and surprised expression.

"W-What are you talking about?" he said angrily. "I wasn't stealing—"

"Save it for the jury buster!" Annie said before he could finish, "I saw you with my own two eyes and these eyes don't lie! You were taking money from that register!"

"Yeah, I was taking money but—"

Before he could finish again, Annie cut in, "Aha! So you do admit you were taking money! I should speak with the manager! How awful! Stealing money…"

People began to whisper and glare at the young man.

As he was about to say something, a man with a moustache and a green jacket pushed through the crowd and got to the stand.

"What is going on here?" he said in a deep, serious voice.

"Manager!" the young man said with a tension in his voice.

Annie was liking this even more. The manager was here! He would set everything right.

"Sir," she said, turning to the man, "This employee was caught taking money from the register. Stealing!"

"Hey, I wasn't—"

Before the young man could continue, the manager looked at him and said, "You're fired. Get out! Don't come back, ever."

The young man swallowed his words and there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. He took off his green jacket, the same one the manager was wearing, and flung it on the counter.

"Fine, uncle," he said as he stormed away, throwing a couple of bills over his shoulder.

Annie looked at the manager. Did that guy just say "uncle"?

The two crumpled bills fell to the wet ground. One was a one dollar bill and the other was a five with a distinct red dash on it.

"Oy, I think I made a mistake…" Annie whispered.

* * *

As she dashed down the street, she could catch bits and pieces of other people's conversation.

"Did you hear about that coffee stand?"

"That boy was stealing… I don't think I could trust people again."

"His own uncle fired him."

"He was yelling at a girl earlier."

"What about?"

"About giving him money."

Annie closed her eyes and stopped at a light post. She felt horrible. She ruined someone's life all because she had jumped to false conclusions. Now, some guy not only lost his job, but lost an uncle, probably his only family. Wait, she thought, I'm not jumping to anymore conclusions—I'm going to find out the truth…

Earlier, when she was at the stand, she tried to talk to the manager. He wouldn't listen to her at all.

"Sir, I've made a mistake. He wasn't stealing," she said.

"Sure, try to defend him now. Just because I'm his uncle, doesn't mean I can't treat him like everyone else."

"You don't feel any remorse at all?" Annie asked.

"Why should I? All that boy has ever caused me was grief. It's good he's finally gone now."

She stepped back, aghast. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The uncle was actually cutting off his nephew.

Annie decided to keep looking. There was no time for breaks. She was just about ready to dash off when she bumped into someone and got knocked to the ground.

"Hey, watch it!" she yelled as she got up and brushed herself off. "Are you trying to ruin my new vintage coat?"

"Well, well, are you trying to ruin my life?" the familiar voice said.

Annie looked up from her clothes and saw who she had bumped into.

"I'm so sorry," she said instantly, "I'm sorry for everything."

"Yeah, I try to do something nice for someone and they accuse me of stealing. Thanks a lot, you really made my holiday," he replied.

"Y'know, I feel really bad about that, but you shouldn't be moping around, standing in the street letting people bump into you."

"First off, I wasn't moping around. I was angrily strolling down the street. Secondly, I wasn't standing in the street, you were. Thirdly, I don't let people bump into me. You did that all your own Ms. Ice Queen."

Annie couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. No wonder his uncle wanted to kick him out so badly.

"Ms. Ice Queen?! Talk about third grade insults! I'm more insulted that you used such a low level insult than the insult itself!"

"What?" he said.

"That's right. Be confused. I see that's the only thing you're capable of."

He shook his head, "I don't have to put up with this. You've done enough to forever scar my life."

He began to walk away when Annie ran off to follow him.

"Hey, wait up! I'm sorry. I just get worked up sometimes. I really want to help you out."

He stopped and turned to Annie, "I forgive you Hansha. Now do me a favor and leave me alone. You don't have to delve into my worthless problems to make yourself feel better. Go and… shop or something."

Annie decided to ignore his last remark, "Hey, I live to help people and how'd you get my name?"

"Remember? You yelled it out when you accused me."

Oh yeah, she thought.

"Oh yeah!" she said. "But I like being called Annie."

He laughed at her and then waved goodbye, "Later Hansha."

"I promise I'll get your uncle to give you your job back!" she yelled.

With that, he left. Annie stood by another light post, pondering what she could do to fix all these problems she had created… well, partly created. She couldn't account for the guy's rotten attitude, but she was determined to find a way to get the guy's job back.

"Think Annie… think…" she said to herself.

"Yeah! Think!" a voice said behind her.

"You stink!" another voice added.

It sounded roughly familiar. Annie quickly turned around and saw two disgruntled dwarves glaring at her. Well, they weren't dwarves but they sure were disgruntled.

"Viv, Ver! I'm so sorry!" she said.

She found herself saying that too many times today. She had completely forgotten about them and their hot cocoa. She had to make it up to them somehow or else she'd never hear the end of it.

"Okay guys, I had a little trouble getting your hot cocoa but we can go get some right now."

"You think you can just buy us off?" Vivicka said. "I got bombarded by snowballs after you left!"

"Yeah and we got lost around town and when we stopped at this one crowded place 'cause we thought it was a show, this one punk was pushing his way out of the place and knocked us the hell over!" Veronica said as she tried using her arms to act out the situation.

Annie stood there blinking. They were at the coffee stand and that one guy was probably the one who pushed them over. So, technically, she was the one indirectly responsible for knocking them down.

"Alright, what about hot cocoa and a meal at McJujo's."

"What did I say about buying us off?" Vivicka said as she rubbed her bruised cheek.

"Anything you want at McJujos."

"Fine," Veronica said, "I'm get whatever I want and as much as I want."

Vivicka nodded.

Annie smiled. It was so easy to please kids. If only she could solve all her problems with money— money that was quickly diminishing.

They walked over to the McJujos and she let them order whatever they wanted. She paid for the large order and they sat down at a booth.

"You said you ran into some trouble," Veronica said who sat across from Annie.

"Yeah, I kinda got this guy fired."

Vivicka, who was sipping on some soda and was also sitting across from Annie, almost spit out her drink, "Wha???"

"Fired? Yeah, some lie," Veronica said as she stared out the window.

"I'm not lying!" Annie yelled, "It really did happen! This guy was fired by his uncle because I accused him of stealing but he was really paying the rest of the hot cocoa for me because I accused him of overpricing the drinks!"

Vivicka continued to drink her drink.

Veronica continued to stare out the window.

"What? You still don't believe me?"

"Yeah, you got the guy fired for paying for our imaginary hot cocoa?" Vivicka said, "Yup, makes lots of sense."

"Alright, I have proof. You know that crowd you guys stopped at? I was the one who caused it! And that guy that pushed you down, he was the guy that got fired!"

There was a sudden glint in Veronica's eyes. She looked at Annie. Annie recognized that glint in her eyes, it wasn't a good glint. It was a mischievous, obnoxious glint. Something was brewing in that brain of hers.

"So you know where that crowd was eh?" Veronica asked, suddenly sounding less angry.

"Yeah… why?" Annie replied suspiciously.

Vivicka put her cup down and she slowly began to grin. Something told Annie that Vivicka was getting on the same wavelength as her cousin.

"What are you guys thinking?"

"Order 626!" a voice called over the intercom.

"That's us!" Veronica said eagerly.

"Let's go!" Vivicka said as they both got up and walked to the counter to get their food.

Annie played with a napkin. At least she was on their good side again, she thought. All she had to worry about now was getting that guy's job back. Something about the uncle made her cringe. How could he be so heartless to his own nephew? What if his nephew was the illegitimate son of his sister and when she died, he had to take in the orphaned child and has always despised his nephew because he was a reminder of his dear, deceased sister's shame?

Annie shook that idea out of her mind. That would never happen, only in those dramas on TV.

The two girls came back with two trays of food.

"Wow, that's a lot," Annie said.

"Yeah," Vivicka said, "We'll be right back."

"Where you going?" Annie asked.

"To get the other two trays," Veronica said as if it was common for two people to eat four trays worth of food.

They soon came back with their other trays and began to dig into the food.

"Umm… you wan' some?" Veronica said between bites of her burger.

"No, it's okay. Looking at you guys eat have made me full enough."

They finished eating pretty quickly. They must have worked up an appetite from the ice-skating.

"Okay, so show us the place," Veronica said as they got out of McJujo's.

"What place?" Annie asked.

"The place where the crowd was."

"Umm… sure," Annie said.

What harm could it be? They just wanted to check out the place. Plus, she could talk to the uncle again.

"C'mon," she said, "Follow me."

They began to walk back toward the town center and down the street to where all the street vendors were. Annie stopped at the coffee stand and saw the uncle with his green jacket.

"Hey Poppop!" Vivicka said to the man as she leaned on the counter.

"Viv! Don't say that to him! He might get angry," Annie said.

Yup, she was actually scolding her. They were embarrassing most of the time; what else could she do? This was probably how Angela felt, she thought to herself. Oh no, she was hanging around the little buggers so much that she was starting to feel like Angela! She had to ditch them again.

Annie's train of thought was interrupted by Vivicka's whining.

"But Annie, this place is called Poppop's Coffee! He has to be Poppop because… because he works here!"

The uncle laughed at Vivicka's argument, "Yes little girl, you can call me Poppop. Do you want some hot chocolate?"

Annie was astonished at the man's kindness. He didn't act like that before when he fired his own nephew.

"Sure!" Vivicka said as she pointed at the biggest cup, "I want it in there."

Poppop laughed again and nodded, "Okay, anything for the little girl who calls me Poppop."

"Don't be greedy you little bugger!" Annie whispered fiercely.

When the uncle's back was turned, Vivicka stuck her tongue out at Annie, "You're just mad that Poppop likes me more than he likes you!"

Annie shook her head. This little girl needed a spanking and Angela would be the one to do it. Yes, Annie made a mental note to herself: tell Angela to hit some manners into the little dork.

Veronica, meanwhile, stood a little further away from the others. She was looking around for something or, more like, someone.

"What are you doing?" Annie said with a sigh. What was it? The fourth time today?

"Just being on the lookout," she replied.

Annie nodded and said to herself, "Okay, time to ditch them."

As Veronica was distracted by her "scouting" and Vivicka was talking to Poppop, Annie turned heel and dashed away from them.

That is, until she bumped into something, or more like, someone.

"Hey, watch it!" she yelled, but then remembered that she had done this before.

She looked up and sure enough, it was the guy whom she got fired.

"You!" they said at the same time.

"Here, lemme help you up," he said as he offered her his hand.

"No thanks," she said as she ignored his gesture and stood up, "I can get up on my own."

"Next time, watch where you're running or else you might run into someone who won't offer to help you."

Annie glared at him. Before she could voice her insult, a voice rang out behind her.

"That's him! That's him Viv!"

Annie turned around and saw Veronica pointing at the guy. Vivicka placed the huge cup of cocoa on the counter and started to follow Veronica, who was running towards them.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, but if I know them, which I don't by the way, you should start running now," Annie said.

He laughed at her, "Run from two little girls? I don't think so, Hansha."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she muttered as she stepped aside as the girls zoomed past her.

"Formation I-G-Y-B!" Veronica ordered.

"I-G-Y-B?" Annie said, "What in the name of—"

Vivicka had disappeared and Veronica charged at the guy. She kicked him square in the stomach. He wasn't prepared for such a strong kick from such a little girl. As he stumbled back, he felt a rock behind his feet which caused him to fall headlong into the ground.

He hit the ground and the wind was knocked out of him. He had to take a moment to regain his sight and saw two girls looking down at him.

"Nice job Viv," Veronica said.

The rock that he tripped over was actually Vivicka crouching down in a tight little ball. Annie finally realized what I-G-Y-B meant.

"I-got-your-back… How lame!" she said aloud.

"Hey, it ain't lame!" Veronica said, "It's a very ancient technique that we practiced hours and hours to perfect!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Vivicka added.

The guy slowly got up, rubbing both his stomach and the back of his head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

Veronica and Vivicka grinned and said in unison, "Super combo punch!"

Two fists made contact with his face.

"Viv, Ver! Stop it or so help me, I will ground you on Christmas Day," Annie said with an "Angelaesque"-type tone, after they had started to kick his shins, which was after they used his stomach as a punching bag and his head as a speed bag. Of course, before all that, they had dragged him into an alleyway.

The two young girls came to a sudden stop.

"Thanks Hansha. You could have said that a little sooner though," he said as sat on the ground, nursing his bruises.

"It was kind of fun to watch though," Annie said as she handed him a tissue for his bleeding nose.

"Stop talking to your boyfriend and let's get outta here before the police come," Veronica said as she cracked her knuckles.

"Boyfriend?! This weakling?" Annie yelled as she stood up and threw the tissues at him.

"I was joking," Veronica said sternly.

"I knew that," Annie said as she picked up the tissue that fell on top of his head.

"C'mon guys! Those coppers are gonna get us," Vivicka said.

"There's nobody coming!" Annie said, "No policeman is gonna come just because two little girls beat up a guy."

"Uh… guys?" the guy said as he held a tissue to his bleeding head.

"Whaddya mean nobody's coming?" Veronica said, "A good beating ends with a police chase! If no one ain't coming, it wasn't a good beating!"

"Maybe we should hit him some more," Vivicka suggested.

"I really think I need some medical attention…" he said.

Annie ignored him, "Viv, no and Ver, where in the world are you learning this stuff?"

Veronica shrugged, "We used to live on the streets y'know and we heard lots of stories from this one old guy who talked about beatings and health problems."

"I'm… gonna… faint…"

Thud

The three turned and saw that he wasn't kidding. He was actually unconscious.

"Run!" Veronica shouted.

Annie grabbed them before they could do anything.

"We're taking him to the hospital—wait," Annie said as a thought popped into her head.

This could work in his favor. His uncle was certainly a harsh man, but he did have a heart. He wouldn't turn away his dying nephew! Yes, his _dying _nephew.

"We're not taking him to the hospital," she said.

"We're not?" Vivicka asked, "So, we're running?"

Veronica smiled at that.

"No, we're going to take him to Poppop," she replied.

"Oh, so he can see what we did to his nephew and scare him straight," Veronica said, "I like it. Good thinking for once Annie."

Annie nodded. She didn't feel like arguing with Veronica's weird logic.

And so, Veronica and Vivicka carried him while they followed Annie back to the coffee stand.

"Mister! Mister!" Annie yelled out.

The uncle leaned over the counter and saw Annie coming towards him with her arms waving frantically.

"This is your nephew right?" she asked as Veronica and Vivicka dumped the guy at the foot of the stand.

The uncle stepped outside the stand, picked up the guy's head by the hair, and looked at his face.

"Yeah, that's him!" he said surprised, "What happened to him?"

"Uh… some thugs beat him up because…" Annie said, trying to think of something that would make the uncle take his nephew back.

"Because the thugs were badmouthing Poppop's coffee and he stood up to them!" Vivicka said.

Whew, good save Viv, she thought.

"What are you talking about? We did it!" Veronica said.

Annie stomped on her foot and Veronica let out a loud howl.

"What did she say?" asked the uncle.

"Uh… she didn't say anything," Annie said quickly, "The main thing is that your nephew is here and he needs your help."

"Why didn't you take him directly to the hospital? He's bleeding in more than one place and that's just on his head!" the uncle said as he took a towel and wrapped it around his nephew's head.

"Well, he said he wanted to see you before he... y'know…" Annie said.

"Before he died?" the uncle said as he gazed at his nephew.

Vivicka and Annie looked at each other and shrugged. It worked for them. As for Veronica, she was still howling.

The uncle hugged his nephew and said, "My boy, I'm sorry for yelling at you and your crazy dreams. You were always chasing those dreams! I was just worried about you, that's all. That's why I tried to stop you. I wanted to protect you from failure and heartbreak! But you know what? I should have said this to you when you were still alive…Your dead father would be proud of you."

He paused to sniff and Annie handed him a tissue.

"And I'm proud of you," he finished.

In the distance, a dog howled in sadness.

Well, in reality, the sound wasn't that far away and it was Veronica who was howling in pain instead of sadness. Annie and Vivicka finally realized that the nephew was bleeding rather profusely and decided to call the ambulance.

When the ambulance truck came, they put the nephew on a stretcher.

"Wow, this was a pretty good beating," one of the paramedics said.

"Yeah, thanks," Veronica said, who stopped howling when she saw the sirens of the truck appear.

The uncle held his nephew's hand. Annie, Vivicka, and Veronica stood around them.

"C'mon, let's load 'em on," said another paramedic.

"Wait…" said a weak voice.

"What? He's alive?" the uncle said, "Oh, I meant—Oh my lord, he's alive! Thank God!"

"You're proud of me?" he asked.

"Of course I am."

"Then, I can go back to working for you?"

"Of course you can! You can even extend the menu!"

"I-I'm so… happy," he said and he looked past his uncle to Annie, "And thanks… Annie."

They got into the ambulance truck and it sped off to the hospital.

Annie, Vivicka, and Veronica stood by the coffee stand.

"So, who's looking after the stand now?" Vivicka said as she took her huge cup of hot cocoa and sipped from it.

"I am!" said a voice.

The three turned around and a saw a young girl standing behind the counter.

Annie was about to ask who the girl was, but decided against it. She had a feeling that they shouldn't be near the coffee stand anymore; it might bring more problems that she didn't want to fix.

"Let's go guys," she said.

"Hey, I think there's a live concert in the middle of the town center starting soon," said the girl behind the counter, "You should check that out."

"Thanks," Annie said.

"Let's go there!" Vivicka said.

"Yeah! We might get free stuff!" Veronica added.

"Okay okay, but we're going to call Angela and Maddy to meet us there," Annie said.

She checked her phone and realized that it was put on silent mode. She had 20 missed calls. Most of the calls were from Maddy.

"Hey Mad!" Annie said, leaving a voice message, "Me and two buggers are watching a live concert at the town square right now. Meet us there and bring Ange! Please! I don't want to be alone with these thugs anymore! I'll tell you about it later. Seeya!"

She put her phone in her bag and looked at the two girls who were glaring at her.

"What? That's how me and Mad talk. We make it sound worse than it really is," Annie said, "Alright, we should go now."

They walked to the town square and saw an outdoor stage with drums and guitars set up. A lot of people were gathering around it. A man approached the microphone.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen! Our Winter Concert will begin shortly."

Annie heard her phone ringing and she picked it up immediately, "Mad! What's up?"

She nodded her head and hung up the phone.

"They're here already!"

"Yeah, they're over there," Veronica said, pointing to a tree with two figures standing by it.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Annie hissed.

"You didn't ask!" Veronica responded.

Vivicka ran over to the tree with Annie and Veronica trailing her.

"Angela! Maddy! We had the most awesome day!" she said excitedly.

"Oh dear, where did you get that bruise?" Angela asked worriedly as she inspected Vivicka's cheek.

"Hey guys! We went ice skating today but got kicked off because people kept yelling at us and then we beat up this guy," Veronica said as she finally got to the tree.

"Where did you take them? To the ghetto park?" Maddy said to Annie.

"No… it's a long story," Annie said as she sighed, for the fifth time.

"Tell me later. For now, let's go push through that crowd before it gets even bigger," Maddy said.

The five girls pushed through people and finally got to the front of the stage. The announcer man approached the microphone again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we will now begin our glorious Winter Concert with the band that has topped the charts ten times in a row!"

With that, the audience cheered and applauded.

A few guys walked out to the guitars and drums. The guy who went up to the foremost guitar had bandages wrapped around his head and he looked like he was just released from a hospital.

"Isn't that?" Veronica said as she looked at Vivicka and Annie, trying to verify what she saw, "Isn't that that guy?"

"It-It is!" Vivicka said.

"Oh my gosh…" Annie said, "I can't believe I accused him of stealing…"

"Score! We beat up a famous dude," Veronica said as she high-fived Vivicka.

The nephew was tuning the guitar.

"Hey, you!" Annie shouted out to him. This was his crazy dream the uncle was talking about? Awesome!

The nephew looked up and saw her.

"Hey, Hansha! Hey, little thugs!" he said as he walked over to them.

"Y-you're a rockin' lead singer of a successful band?" Annie asked.

He laughed at her, "Well, how can I say this… yes."

Annie froze. She had accused him of stealing and got his uncle to fire him. Not only that, but her two little buggers had beaten him up and sent him to the hospital.

"An-chan?" Maddy said, "You know this guy?"

"Yeah, she knows me," he said as he extended his hand to Maddy, "I'm the lead's tuner, also the heir to Poppop's Coffee, the best coffee from a stand."

Maddy shook his hand, "Nice to meet you."

Annie shook off her amazement and then asked, "Wait, you just said you were the lead singer."

"Oh, I was just messing with you to see if you believed me. I'm just a guitar tuner. The lead singer won't sing unless I fix his guitar."

All admiration she had for this guy had vanished into the wind. Well, she only liked him for that one brief moment that he was "lead singer". Now, she wanted to send him back to the hospital.

"Laters, Hansha. By the way, you owe me four bucks."

"Yeah, get off the stage so the real singers can come on and plus… I reunited you with your uncle and got your job back like I promised. I think four bucks covers that."

He smiled and walked back to the guitar stand where he set the newly tuned guitar down. He followed the other tuner guys backstage while the real band came out to a mass of hollering and cheering people.

"Eh, beating up anybody is good enough for me," Veronica said.

"Yeah, same here," Vivicka said.

Annie felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned around. It was the uncle, or Poppop.

"Hey there! Thanks for everything you've done for us. I don't know how to repay you," he said to her.

"Oh, it was nothing. I caused it in the first place."

"Don't blame it on yourself. We were always fighting like that."

"May I ask why?"

"Sure. It was simple—I wanted him to take over the coffee stand business. He wanted to build a ramen stand instead. In the end, we compromised all thanks to you, Ms. Hansha."

Annie didn't know what to say. She saved the future of 'Poppop's Coffee'.

"Wow…"

"Wow indeed," he said, "Now let's enjoy the show."

The band began to play and the people began to sway. The night was young and the cold winter day wasn't so bad after all. She was glad she was dragged out today, even if it was with the two little street thugs.

Annie smiled contently to herself and decided that for tomorrow, she was staying home with a nice, warm cup of sweet hot chocolate.

But, nothing, and she stressed _nothing_, ever goes as planned.

The End


	7. Unexpected Arrivals

_Disclaimer: All original characters belong to my cousin and me. Only the Sailor Moon stuff belongs to someone else (Naoko Takeuchi). Yup. Also, I decided to take someone's advice and broke these chapters up to make them shorter. It's easier for the reader and for myself._

_A/N: I didn't have this story beta-read yet, nor any of the other episodes. Please forgive me mistakes! Also, just to clarify, I have nothing against elderly people; it's just that the five young girls happened to choose a house that was located in the midst of grumpy old people. So, if there are any comments that offend you, keep in mind that those comments are only limited to those old people that live within the young girls' neighborhood. Other than that, Happy Holidays!_

_

* * *

_

Episode III: Unexpected Arrivals

"Hey! Hand me that rope!" she ordered from the pack of the jeep.

A clump of rope was thrown at her from the passenger seat.

"Thanks a lot, Thorn," she said sarcastically as she began to untangle it.

"No prob," said a voice that belonged to a young male teenager. He had golden hair that he liked to spike up despite the fact that he could easily poke someone in the eye with hair like that.

"You got everything packed in Lev?" an older male said as he got into the driver's seat. He always liked to hide his face behind his hair. She didn't know why, but it had something to do with him trying to appear mysterious.

She was so determined to untangle the rope that she didn't respond to her friend. Finally, she had got the last knot out, raveled the rope up neatly, and put it under the backpacks and sleeping bags.

"Done!" she said triumphantly, "Let's hit the road!"

The two in the front laughed and they were about to drive away when they heard a voice calling for them to stop.

"How could you forget your own sister?" she said to the teen.

"It's not my fault Jay was going to drive away!"

The girl jumped into the jeep while throwing her bag into the back.

"You okay, Rosie?" she asked the girl who was huffing and puffing. She had a small plastic rose clip in her hair. She loved to display anything with her namesake on it.

"Yeah, I'm okay!" she said with a smile, "Thanks for letting me come along to the camping trip!"

"Of course, we can't leave you home alone."

"I can't wait to see everyone else at the cabin," Rosie said as she stretched her arms.

Levita smiled and leaned her head back, letting the wind blow through her burgundy hair. The sun was shining and there was a scent of wilderness in the air. As she was about to drift into a light sleep, there was a sudden jolt, like the jeep had hit a large speed bump.

"What's going on?" she said worriedly.

"It's nothing. We're just going into the forest," Jay replied.

"Want anything to eat?" Thorn said, "I know you're hungry Rose."

"Am not!" she protested.

However, the grumbling her stomach made didn't help her argument. Thorn threw a rice bun at her and it landed in her lap. She picked it up and began to eagerly eat it.

"Want one Lev?" he asked.

"No, that's okay," she said, rather distractedly.

She was looking at their surroundings. It was getting darker the further they drove down this road. The trees were getting thicker and thicker. It was to the point that no light could pass through them. The road was getting rockier as well.

"Hey, is this the right way?" she asked.

Jay's face was hidden because it was so dark.

"I'm sure it's the right way," he replied, "I drove down here before. I just don't remember it being this dark."

"I think it's raining," Rosie said.

"It's not," Thorn said, "Wait, I think it is…"

"Turn back!" Levita commanded.

"C'mon, I know we're getting close!" he said stubbornly.

It began to rain harder. Lightning struck in the distance.

"I don't like the sound of that," Rosie said.

Levita threw a sleeping bag over both of them to protect them from the rain. She could barely see anything, just faint shadows of trees.

"Can you see the road?" she yelled out.

"Yeah… I think so…" the driver replied.

"I can't see anything up here!" Thorn said. "I don't think you can see either!"

"Let's go back. It's getting dangerous!" Levita said sternly.

Suddenly, it felt like the jeep itself had jumped up and then crashed down to the ground. Levita could feel herself being thrown back. She could smell smoke amidst the rain. There was a loud noise and a flash of light. A searing pain shot through her leg. She could hear Rosie cry out and Thorn desperately shouting for her.

She was beginning to see darkness again. But, before the utter darkness completely took her, she saw a hooded figure and a shadowy hand reach down for her…

* * *

Levita woke with a fright. It was the same dream night after night. She couldn't fathom what they meant. Hidden, Rosie, and Thorn were all there… the other three Sinistar Warriors.

"Why is this happening to me?" she said as she got out of bed and went over to her stone chair that faced a mirror.

She looked at herself. A human—That's what she saw and that's what she abhorred. Master Sinistogi said that their home planet was destroyed by the worthless humans. One day, when she repaid her debt to the Master and gained her freedom, she would go out and search for her people again.

However, the dream she had felt so real. It might have been something from her past, but she told herself that it couldn't be. They were too human-like and the place they were in was too Earth-like. They were riding in a jeep, for crying out loud!

She shook herself from the thought.

"No, this dream might be some type of trick. I must stay focused on my mission," she said to her reflection in the mirror, "I must free us all."

In the shadows, a girl with a rose in her hand gazed at Levita. She wanted to go out to Levita but held back.

"I dream the same, Lev," she whispered as she stepped back further into the shadows and disappeared.

XXXXX

"An-chan!" Maddy yelled from the roof, "Throw me the lights!"

"Here it comes Mad!" she yelled back as she tossed a string of lights up.

Maddy, fortunately, caught them and began to unravel them. She hummed a little Christmas song as she began to put the lights around the house.

Veronica climbed up to the roof.

"Aye, we got some old people here."

Maddy looked down and saw a crowd of people, staring at the house. (Well, it was more like glaring.)

"Wow! We have spectators already!" she said as she waved to them.

Veronica rolled her eyes, "They ain't specters. They're old people. They're complainin' about something."

From where the two stood, they could see Annie shaking her fists at what could be called the leader of the elderly group.

Ever since they had moved into the neighborhood, they were accosted by the elderly folk who lived there. In general, all the people of the neighborhood were elderly folk and thus, they were always bombarded with complaints about noise, the lawn, the color of the house, and anything pertaining to the overall appearance of the house.

Every year when Christmas rolled around, the five girls learned that the brighter the lights, the louder the complaints. They also found that they didn't really mind the latter part. They reasoned that it was a method to get to know their neighbors.

"Your lights are too bright! I can't get any sleep because they shine through my bedroom windows!" cried out an elderly man with a nightcap on.

"Get that neon fat man off the roof! It's hideous and offensive," said an old lady.  
"That's Santa Claus, for crying out loud!" Annie replied, who was just about to pull her own hair out.

"My eye sight isn't good but I could spot your house from miles! Take those damn lights down!" another old man yelled.

Maddy sighed and called out to Annie, "I think some _loud_ festive carols will do!"

Annie nodded as she went over to the front door and pressed a few buttons. Music came blaring out of nowhere. It was loud enough to drown out the complaints.

"I think this is the best we've done so far!" Maddy shouted to Veronica, who was sitting on the edge, dangling her feet off the roof.

"Yeah, I think so too," she replied, shouting as well, "We should add more spotlights!"

Maddy nodded in agreement.

Annie climbed up the ladder and joined the two on the roof.

"So, what'd you think of the neighbors this year?" Maddy asked her as she sat down.

"Cranky and annoying, as usual," Annie replied, "I just hope we don't turn out like those grumpy hags…"

"Don't worry!" Veronica said, "You'll be grumpier!"

Annie was about to pat Veronica on the back and _accidentally_, cause her to fall off the roof when Angela stepped out of the house and shut off the music,

"Hey? What gives?" Annie said instead. "Angela! Turn it back on!"

Angela looked around and finally realized that they were sitting on the roof. She walked to the base of the ladder and shouted from there.

"Annie, Maddy, and Veronica, get down here this instant! I will not have a group of injured teammates on my hands!"

The three nodded and climbed down the ladder.

"What in the world were you doing up there besides putting up the lights?" Angela asked.

"Well, we were hidin' from the oldies," Veronica replied, "For people who don't do anything, they sure know how to complain."

"Ver! I'm pretty sure they do something," Maddy said.

"Yeah, like play bingo on Saturday nights!" Annie said.

As Maddy and Annie were busy laughing at their joke, Veronica and Angela noticed that it was suddenly very dark.

"What's going on?" Veronica asked.

Angela turned to the house and saw that it was not glowing anymore. The lights were off. The spotlights were off. The singing Santa Claus was off as well.

Suddenly, Vivicka burst out of the front door, waving her arms in fright.

"Guys! I was in my room, working on the comp and then it shut off for no reason and then everything went black and I was scared because I was the only one in the house!" she said as she collapsed on the grass.

The four ran to her. She was laying flat on her back, taking long deep breaths.

"She'll be okay right?" Maddy asked.

"She will be," Angela said, "For now, let us investigate this bizarre situation."

"Damn those old people! They pulled the plug on us! I'll pull their plugs now!" Annie said as she was about to storm off.

"Hey, what's that?" Veronica said, pointing up at the sky.

The all looked up, even Vivicka, who was still lying on the ground. In the night sky, they saw three shooting stars. They were falling, faster and faster and disappeared beyond the horizon. There was a fourth brighter shooting star, but in the middle of its course, it vanished into darkness.

"They look too close to Earth to be falling like that. I doubt they are even stars," Angela said to herself.

"Look!" Annie said, "The lights are on again!"

They had to shield their eyes for a moment so that they could adjust to the brightness again.

"Let's go in and drink some hot chocolate!" Maddy said as she ran into the house.

The other three followed her, but Angela stayed outside, gazing at the sky. She tried to pinpoint where the stars or whatever they were had fallen.

"Ange!" Annie and Maddy called from the inside of the house.

Angela decided to think about it later. For now, she went into the warm house and joined her friends for some nice hot cocoa.

XXXXX

"Brother, what is it that troubles you?"

"It has finally come, what I felt before."

"Then, you are not troubled?"

"Ah, your psychic sense is flawless. I am troubled indeed. What I have caught may be a hindrance or an advantage for us."

"I cannot foresee this for you, brother. For that, I'm sorry, but I can assure you that this discovery that you now have in your grasp will be of immense importance."

Master Sinistogi stood up and walked toward the black marble table. There was a small unconscious creature on it. The creature was about the size of a cat, but a little larger. It certainly looked like a cat save for its multiple tails.

"Immense importance? What could you, a lowly animal, be worth to me?"

XXXXX

Three creatures were lying unconscious in the middle of the forest at night. They had a long journey ahead of them. They were looking for something and with their leader missing, it was all the more difficult.

XXXXX

"Do it again Annie! You sound just like her!" Maddy said, bursting out in laughter.

"Keep it down," Angela said, "The neighbors might complain again."

"They complain about everything," Annie replied and altering her voice, added, "Get that fat neon man off the roof! It's offensive!"

Maddy, Veronica, and Vivicka laughed even louder this time at Annie's imitation of the old lady.

Angela shook her head and continued to sip her cocoa while gazing out the window.

"Hey… what's this?" Annie said.

She had been looking through the magazines stacked under the table and found two photos.

"That's me!" Maddy exclaimed, "And you!"

"This was when we were at the Mega Mall and we got attacked by Levita," Annie said. "Where'd you get this?"

Vivicka jumped to the other side of Annie, "Sofia took them. She snuck into the mall and snapped some pics of you."

"What?!" Annie and Maddy said.

"Yeah, we forgot to tell you," Veronica said as she downed her cup of chocolate.

"How can you forget to tell us?" Annie shouted.

Maddy took the second photo and looked at it.

"T-this is Mukashi no Tenshi and us again!"

Annie looked at it too, "You're right! That's the fire!"

"Sofia took that one too," Vivicka said.

"That fire… good thing we stopped it before anyone else got hurt…" Maddy said.

Annie threw the pictures on the table. She didn't want to remember the fire, of what they did, and what they didn't do.

"What's wrong Auntie Anne?" Vivicka said. She used the appellation 'Auntie Anne' whenever she thought Annie needed cheering up.

"We saved the school but we still couldn't save her," she said.

Maddy picked up the pictures again and slumped down in her seat. They all were quiet for a moment, thinking back to the day of the fire…

"Cascading blade!" Star Bud Aquarius yelled as a waved of water splashed down onto the fire.

Star Bud Leo was looking around the science room. It was slowly getting eaten away by flames. Tables were overturned and instruments were shattered on the ground.

"This fire is whacked out!" Aquarius said as she charged up for another water attack.

"I agree," Star Bud Sagittarius said, "Though it is abnormal, you must continue the water attacks until I can find another solution."

Leo spotted a figure in the corner.

"H-hey! We'll get you out!" she said.

As she got closer to the figure, it looked like it was huddled over something. However, the figure itself wasn't moving at all. Leo stopped moving and stared at what lay before her. It was her teacher. Her milky white skin was now charred to a blackened husk and her long yellow hair was singed up to her neck.

"Look out Leo!" Aquarius shouted.

Leo turned around to see a fireball flying at her. She quickly took her mirror staff and aimed the mirror at the fireball.

"Mirror absorption!"

The fireball flew into the mirror and disappeared. Leo could feel the handle grow hot and she looked around for a place to discharge her staff without adding more fire to the room.

"Here Leo!" Aquarius said with a wave of her sword.

Leo nodded and swung her mirror toward Aquarius. The fireball shot out from the staff and went straight for the other two Star Buds. Luckily, Aquarius doused it out in one swift motion of her sword.

"Where'd that come from?!" Leo shouted.

"Leo, join us quickly," Sagittarius said.

Leo ran over to the other two, jumping over a broken chair that was beginning to burst into flames. They stood, back to back, looking around for the source of the fireball.

"There!" Sagittarius said, as she pointed at the front of the classroom, "I believe it is some sort of fire demon."

Leo and Aquarius looked bewilderedly at her, "Demon?!"

Before they could receive an explanation, a great roar came from the flames and they saw parts of the fire come together to take the shape of an almost human body. From its hand shot another fireball and it headed directly for them.

"Here is the plan," Sagittarius said, "Leo, absorb the fireball. Aquarius, water the demon. I am certain that if I shoot at the core of the demon, the fires will dissipate."

"But, don't you shoot fire arrows? It won't hurt that thing," Leo said.

"I can shoot regular arrows."

Leo cocked her head to the side, "I didn't know that."

"Leo! We can ask her more stuff later! The fireball is coming!" Aquarius shouted.

Leo held out her mirror once again and said, "Mirror absorption!"

The fireball flew into the mirror and she held tightly onto the glowing red staff as she made way for Aquarius and her sword.

"My turn!" Aquarius said, "Cascading blade!"

As she sliced her sword down, a wave of water charged at the fire demon. The wave hit the demon and a sickening sizzle filled the air. What stood before them was no longer the fiery being, but a black, smoky figure, trying to form itself again.

Sagittarius aimed her arrow and shot. The arrow struck the black figure in what would be the heart and it let out a shriek as it turned completely into smoke that flew across the room and faded away.

The fires faded away as well, but the disaster it caused remained.

Sagittarius ran to the window and looked outside at the other buildings. The fire had spread beyond the science room and had reached the rest of the campus. Nothing was left untouched by the vengeful fire. She let out a sigh of relief that they had ended the fires when they did. It might have grown outside of the school and put more people in danger.

"Mad…" Leo said. "She's dead."

Sagittarius turned around and saw, from across the room, Leo leaning against Aquarius who was looking down at something. She approached them and she too saw what they were looking at and mourning. It was their teacher who had helped them and taught them so much that year…

"How'd Sofia get this?" Annie asked, breaking the silence.

Angela stopped looking out the window and turned her attention to the others. She set her cocoa down on the table and pondered Annie's question before responding.

"She said that she was doing an article on Mukashi no Tenshi's science department."

"This is really weird," Maddy said, "I mean, it's like the fire's coming back to haunt us."

They all looked at her with puzzled expressions.

She laughed and said, "Well, ever since that fire happened, we haven't been able to contact home. Then, these weird people come after us claiming that we're something we're not and talking about the 'fire'. And _then_, this picture Sofia took shows up. Do I smell a haunting coming on?"

"It is possible. That fire did have a high amount of dark energy surrounding it. However, I think it is much too late in the night to be discussing such things. Off to bed you two go so you can get up early for the party tomorrow," Angela said as she looked at Vivicka and Veronica.

"But I haven't finished my cocoa yet!" Vivicka whined.

"Here Viv," Veronica said as she snatched Vivicka's cup, chugged the drink down and handed it back to her, "You're done now."

"Ver! I'm gonna- gonna…"

"Gonna what? That's right little monkey, you can't do anything about it!" she said with a loud laugh.

Vivicka smiled creepily, "Sure. Let's go to sleep now dear cousin. Heh heh heh…"

Veronica didn't notice the eerie grin and followed Vivicka upstairs; both were laughing but laughing about different things.

Downstairs, Annie put the mugs away and returned to the sofa to sit amongst Maddy and Angela.

"So, what're we doing?" Annie asked.

"A night mission, isn't it?" Maddy said cheerfully.

"What gave you that idea?" Angela asked in an accusatory tone, "We will just be investigating some suspiciousness."

"I knew it!" Annie and Maddy said in unison.

"You always tell them to go to bed when we do night missions," Annie said.

"Why, of course! Vivicka is always groggy if she does not get enough sleep and tends to bump into things. Veronica, on the other hand, if she does not get enough sleep, just keels over like a statue if you push her and you find that she is just sleeping."

"Oh yeah…" Maddy said as she chuckled at the memory of those two.

"So, once again I ask, what're we doing?" Annie said.

"Remember those shooting stars we saw tonight?" Angela said, "I believe they are not shooting stars but rather something that is traveling to Earth and has finally reached it. It might be good or it might be bad, but nonetheless we must get to it first before others find it."

"Right-o," Maddy said, "Let's go!"

The three put on their coats and set out into the night.

XXXXX

Angela had her healing rod out and was scanning the forest for different energy levels.

"Ah, the handy healing rod," Annie said, "Why didn't the rest of us get one?"

"Face it An-chan. Even if we had one, we wouldn't be able to use," Maddy replied.

"Why?"

"Because we wouldn't know how."

"Oh, good point."

Angela stopped before a grove of trees. The other two stopped as well. Angela was analyzing the holographic image that the healing rod projected. From what Maddy and Annie could tell, they were standing before the brightest part of the image.

"This is it. The bright white area on this map shows that it is exuding a large amount of energy. Beyond this grove, we will found out what those shooting stars were," Angela explained.

Annie and Maddy nodded. They waited for Angela to do something. She didn't.

"Um… Ange? You still awake there? Aren't we going in?" Annie said.

Angela replied, "Well, I was thinking that maybe we should be more cautious."

"Like transform?" Maddy suggested.

"Exactly," Angela said.

"Why didn't you just say so?" Annie said and raised her hand up, "Leo Power!"

"Aquarius Power!"

"Sagittarius Power!"

A bright light surrounded the three and they were now transformed into Star Buds.

"Let us go," Sagittarius said as she stepped into the grove.

The other two followed her. The land was starting to slope downwards and there were more trees the further down they went.

"Are we there yet?" Aquarius asked.

"Almost," Sagittarius replied.

As she said this, she stepped onto level ground and found herself no longer surrounded by tall trees. In fact, there were no trees at all. Before them was a large circular clearing; it was like the forest had stopped growing there and only bordered it.

"Whoa, this is weird," Aquarius said.

"There," Sagittarius whispered as she walked to the middle of the clearing.

"Wait up Ange," Leo said as she was catching her breath.

Sagittarius got to it first. Aquarius came to it moments later and Leo got to it last. The three stood, looking down at what they discovered.

"Um… what are they?" Leo asked, as she used the end of her staff to poke at one.

"They can't be cats. Cats aren't that… weird looking," Aquarius said.

"Unbelievable," Sagittarius uttered in awe.

The other two Star Buds looked at her, waiting for an explanation. Clearly, she had some notion of what they were looking at.

"These three creatures… are guardians."

End: Part I of Episode III


End file.
